Goodbye to All That

The sacred cows were startled. The roar of gun salutes echoed from the peaks of the Himalayas. The 108,000 inhabitants of Nepal's capital, Kathmandu, knew that the big event was taking place in ornate Singha Durbar Hall. Before the glittering assembly of 35 white-uniformed Nepalese generals, His Highness, the Maharaja Padma Shum Shere Jung Bahadur Rana, Prime Minister and Supreme Commander in Chief of Nepal, and Joseph C. Satterthwaite, President Truman's personal representative, were signing exchange notes which established U.S. diplomatic relations and opened trade. Their watches carefully synchronized, the 73-year-old Maharaja and his aides watched the seconds tick by. The Maharaja had previously consulted the Nepalese high priests who, after studying horoscopes, informed His Highness that the most auspicious time for signing was exactly 2:31 o'clock.

In the past Nepal (54,000 sq. mi.) maintained regular relations only with Britain and with occasional visiting Chinese missions. But Britain's departure from India, Nepal's next-door neighbor, has already begun to create a political vacuum into which the U.S. is stepping.

Marrying Season. Until last fall, when the U.S. charge d'affaires in India visited Nepal for the purpose of decorating the Maharaja with the Legion of. Merit, only a handful of Americans had ever visited the country. But last fortnight the doings of the exotic Americans competed as an attraction with local goings on. This is the Nepalese marrying season. Beginning at 5:30 in the mornings, the streets of Kathmandu echo with sounds of three-man orchestras, flute, drum and tambourine, which accompany the bridegrooms, sitting in small palanquins, on their way to the weddings.

The Satterthwaite mission arrived at its destination after a train-car-horseback-and-foot journey, which involved crossing two mountain passes, 7,200 and 7,700 feet high. In Kathmandu they found a two-storied bungalow awaiting their occupancy, together with gifts including venison, fowls and fruits from the Maharaja. Their guest house, as well as various durbar halls, were decorated with the Nepalese flag (a double red pennant on which is inscribed a sun and moon), flying beside the Stars & Stripes which had only 13 stars.

The Maharaja sent military bands to serenade the Americans nightly. They played Nepalese hill tunes and a creditable version of the Star-Spangled Banner. There were numerous dinners, receptions, reviews, movie showings and sightseeing tours. Formal afternoon clothes, as well as white ties and tails, were frequently worn. But the highlights of the visit were two official durbars. For the first durbar Nepal's King, Maharajadhiraja Tribhubana Bir Bikram Jung Bahadur Shah Bahadur Shum Shere Jung Deva,* who rarely appears in public, officially presided in a long baroque hall hung with pictures of his predecessors. Satterthwaite presented a letter from President Truman to his "Great and Good Friend," which stated the U.S. "recognized the absolute and complete independence of Nepal."

Events in British India had apparently persuaded the old Maharaja to forsake Nepal's isolation policy. But he was also persuaded by younger members of the Rana family, most of whom were educated in British India. U.S. mission members found that these young Nepalese have clear ideas about what they want to do, are keen to modernize Nepal, but do not want to hurry. Their plan now is to sell a modest amount of jute, linseed, probably drugs and some musk (the perfume-producing sac of the musk deer). In that way, they would create a small dollar balance with which to buy U.S. machinery and hire U.S. technicians. Nepal's younger generals asked U.S. help in making economic surveys, inspecting possible sites for hydroelectric power, furnishing some machinery for mills in the Nepal lowlands. They also talked about a project for a high-class tourist trade for tiger hunting.

*Nepal has two dynasties, one for kings or maharajadhirajas, and the other for prime ministers or maharajas. The king wields no political power. As a reincarnation of Vishnu, he is chiefly a religious figure. Real power is in the hands of the Rana family, which furnishes the maharajas. The relationship resembles that in old Japan between the Emperor and the Shogun.

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