H.R.H. Princess Alexandra of Kent
7th December 1961

 

Princess Alexandra visited Aden for the Tercentenary celebrations of the 1st Batallion Queen's Royal Surrey Regiment. She inspected the Parade and took the salute at the Tercentenary Parade on 7th December 1961, visited Al-Ittihad the same day and also visited the Reilly Centre for the Blind.

 

A year later in 1962 the Princess would return to visit some of Aden's ancient ruins. Princess Alexandra's tour of the Far East was to provide headaches for the Foreign Office, Commonwealth Relations Office and Colonial Office. 

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The trip was made as part of a Far East tour taking in Hong Kong, Burma, Thailand and Japan. At the last minute the itinerary had been changed to allow the Princess to spend three days in Vancouver visiting friends on the outward leg of her journey. The return leg had also been altered to allow the princess to tour ancient ruins in Aden. The extra cost of that detour (£125,000 at today's prices) fell on the Colonial Office.

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In addition, the Princess demanded a clothing allowance equivalent to £60,000.

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Miss G E Miles of the Treasury noted: "We are considerably perturbed at the way in which Sir Philip Hay [comptroller to the princess] has extended the itinerary originally agreed, and arranged for extra stops at the last moment.

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"Sir Philip said that the estimate for clothing was larger than anticipated because the princess would need two complete outfits - one for the Far Eastern countries and another for the Canadian winter. It is difficult to see how the FO could be expected to bear the cost of a winter outfit for the princess to wear in Canada visiting private friends".

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Sir Philip countered by arguing that the winter outfits were needed because of the difference in climate between Japan and Hong Kong. He refused to provide itemised accounts, arguing that the taxpayer was only "making a contribution" to the princess's expenses.