Jangled Nerves & Ankle Bells

It has been a nervous time for strapping, 6-ft. Sir Andrew Benjamin Cohen, British governor in Uganda. During all the long months when his Queen was proceeding on her majestic, globe-girdling tour of Britain's dominions, native unrest in Sir Andrew's own bailiwick had mounted steadily. Uganda's blacks were still bitterly resentful of Cohen's exile of their own tribal ruler, the Kabaka (TIME, Dec. 14, 1953). Mau Mau terrorism had spread through the jungles from Kenya right into Uganda's teeming chief city Kampala, where many a white resident found a dead dog or cat crucified on his doorway in grim warning of what might come. A threat from Mau Mau Leader Dedan Kimathi to kill Britain's Queen if she came to visit gave the final jolt to the British governor's jangled nerves.

Ginger Snaps. For weeks as Elizabeth approached Uganda, Non-Smoker Sir Andrew had gone about distractedly nibbling ginger snaps and calling Whitehall at all hours of the day and night. One result of his agitated conferences with London was a last-minute cancellation of the Queen's visit to Kampala. But even with the ceremonial greetings restricted largely to his own well-guarded Government House at Entebbe, Sir Andrew felt far from secure. Last week, on Cohen's lawn, Acholi warriors and women, adorned with leopard skins, ostrich feathers and giraffe tails, pranced to the beat of jungle drums and chanted a song especially composed for the newly arrived Queen: "The daughter of the Chief is ringing her ankle bells. She is our Queen today. As a seabird, she has come to us." Clad in ice-blue, Elizabeth smiled in apparent delight, but in the thick shadows clouding the groves of moonlit acacia trees just beyond her, squads of hard-faced Negro policemen, brought over from Kenya (the better to recognize familiar faces), prowled ceaselessly in search of Mau Mau intruders.

Next day the Queen was escorted under close guard to Jinja, to open the sluice gates of the new, 150,000-kw. Owen Falls hydroelectric plant. There again the security police prowled sharp-eyed through the crowd, but Elizabeth seemed completely unaware of any potential danger. The power failed and the mikes went dead during the Queen's speech. Later on, an elevator jammed, holding Elizabeth captive for some worrisome seconds. A British general's aide reported his revolver stolen. Except for these mishaps, all went well.

Farewell. Next night, the Queen left, bound for Tobruk and a long-delayed reunion with her children, who had come by the new royal yacht Britannia to meet her. In Uganda, Sir Andrew Cohen breathed easier.

* "What fun," observed Winston Churchill in 1907, envisioning the future dam, "to make the immemorial Nile begin its journey by diving through a turbine!"

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