Fella Belong Mrs. Queen

The tall, jaunty lecturer who took his place behind the lectern in London's Royal Festival Hall was obviously a personable sort. But that was no guarantee that he would not also be a crashing bore. After all, he was pretty much of an amateur at the illustrated lecture business. His subject, "My Story of the Commonwealth Tour," sounded a bit dull, and his audience--2,000 teen-agers imported by the Ministry of Education's Imperial Institute from schools in London and the Home Counties--was not the easiest kind to handle. Nevertheless, from the minute His Royal Highness Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh, opened his mouth, he had his captive audience captivated.

Forbidden Fruit. Assuming the slightly gruff air of an indulgent uncle, he began by asking: "Can you hear me at the back? I don't want to waste my time." The audience laughed, and Philip went on. "Even if you were in a jet," said he. "I don't think you could get around the world in less than 48 hours. But this morning you are going to do it in 60 minutes, so you can imagine that it is going to be a bit of a rush." Then, after a glance at the mound of slides in front of him, Philip changed his mind: "I hope you all had a good breakfast this morning, because you may not be through before teatime."

Though he had to admit that he never got to Singapore on his recent 36,000 mile trip ("Perhaps I shouldn't tell you, but I believe the schools were rioting"), he whisked his young audience through 20 different lands, dropping offbeat bits of information on the way. The Seychelles, he explained, are "supposed to be the original Garden of Eden. They grow a double-ended coconut there that is supposed to be the original Forbidden Fruit. I'm not surprised. I tasted some. I think Adam was very ill-advised to taste it."

Prison Is a Treat. When he got to New Guinea, he reported that the natives are utterly baffled when they are jailed for wrongdoing: "Prison is a treat. They get three square meals a day and interesting work to do." One slide showed a long-legged white bird that had flown aboard his ship on Trafalgar Day. "We called him Horatio," said Philip. "I must confess I still don't know what sort of bird it was.'' At one point he played a record of some pidgin English. "It is a very old language," he explained, "and has to be learned. For instance, they called me 'Fella belong Mrs. Queen.' "

In 80 minutes Philip finished, but the laughter and cheers of his audience echoed far beyond the walls of Royal Festival Hall. Cried the Daily Sketch on its front page: "What should we do about a Prince who can capture the most difficult audience in the world? Well, if we've any sense we should put him on TV. Forward BBC! Forward ITV! Get moving!" With uncharacteristic swiftness, the BBC did move, announced that Philip would repeat his talk over a nationwide hookup.

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