"A Popular Young Lad"

The demands on a Prince of Wales have altered, but I am determined to serve and to try as best I can to live up to those demands, whatever they might be in the rather uncertain future.

One thing I am clear about, and it is that Wales needs to look forward with out forsaking the traditions and essential aspects of her past.

First in lilting Welsh, and then in a King's English, Britain's Prince Charles last week spoke those modest words to his countrymen in response to his in vestiture as Prince of Wales. Around the world millions watched the four hours of panoply and pageantry over satellite TV transmission. What the world saw was a slim, erect young man moving slowly and somewhat stiffly at first through one of royalty's rich, ancient rituals. But for the 80,000 or so who crowded in and around the ancient castle of Caernarvon, the mixture of Welsh informality and London modishness that marked the occasion made it a kind of family and tribal outing. Charles' investiture turned out to be more impressive, more personal--and more fun --than almost anyone, especially the Welsh, had thought it would be.

Box-Lunch Search. Even so, the occasion was not entirely without the violence that Welsh nationalists had promised. Two young extremists were killed the night before the ceremony when explosives that they were carrying went off near train tracks in Abergele, where the royal family passed on its way to Caernarvon. Later, the train carrying the royal entourage was halted while police checked out one of dozens of bomb threats, and hours after Charles had left the castle, a British soldier burned to death inside an army minibus that had caught fire, possibly from a bomb.

Even though no incidents disturbed the ceremony itself, tension did necessitate a gigantic and unseemly security apparatus. Frogmen searched the harbor, and gate guards pried into guests' box lunches and even into the orchestra's instruments in a search for explosives.

Such minor indignities paled once the ceremony was underway. It began with a procession, almost two hours long, of soldiers in their dressiest uniforms, bards dressed in swirling blue-and-green togas, Welsh politicians in robes of office and British officials, including Prime Minister Harold Wilson, KEYSTONE in morning clothes. The royal family itself was rather subdued. Queen Elizabeth, carrying an Edwardian parasol, was done up in pale gold. Prince Philip wore the dark blue, braided uniform of a field marshal. Prince Charles, who waited in the Chamberlain tower until formally summoned by his mother, wore the No. 1 blues of the New Royal Regiment of Wales, of which he is colonel-in-chief. As he received the instruments of his office --silver-handled sword, amethyst ring, ermine-topped mantle and contemporary gold coronet--mother and son looked into each other's eyes. When it was over, and Charles had delivered his speech, Philip caught his son's eye, and the prince broke into a smile.

Triumphal Tour. It was a contagious expression. The audience of 4,000, which filled the inner court of Caernarvon, rose to their feet and applauded. Outside, the crowd that had gathered to give the prince a friendly welcome kept the streets and pubs of the tiny town filled with laughter late into the night. Charles slipped away to the royal yacht Britannia, where he gave a relaxed dinner party, then left the next day for a triumphal tour of his new principality.

Although bomb threats persisted, acclaim for the young prince pushed into the background, temporarily at least, Welsh resentment over London's economic neglect of their proud land. The vast majority of Welshmen seemed determined to appropriate Charles--and showed it in their smiles, their waving flags and the sheer numbers in which they turned out wherever he went. Even M.P. Gwynfor Evans, president of the Welsh separatist party Plaid Cymru, was impressed. After talking with Charles in the strongly nationalistic city of Carmarthen, Evans conceded: "A very popular young lad."

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