At Government House, Singapore, Nehru and Mountbatten get into an open car. View from the cameraman's jeep as the driver follows Mountbatten's staff car; the streets are crowded with onlookers who wave as the car passes. On the steps of a YMCA (Young Men's Christian…
At Government House, Singapore, Nehru and Mountbatten get into an open car. View from the cameraman's jeep as the driver follows Mountbatten's staff car; the streets are crowded with onlookers who wave as the car passes. On the steps of a YMCA (Young Men's Christian Association) club Mountbatten and Nehru are garlanded. A view from the back of a clamouring crowd; an Indian tricolour can be seen. Brief shot of a jeep picking its way through a dense crowd. Shot from the Kallang Airport terminal showing a Douglas Dakota transport aircraft and a crowd gathering around it. Close-up of Nehru as he and his entourage pass camera. A garlanded Nehru shakes hands with the crowd and a number of Military Policemen, presumably trying to keep things on schedule, can be seen. Shot of a crowd lining a curved street; Nehru and Mountbatten's motorcade round the bend and the crowd wave enthusiastically. At Kallang Airport Nehru steps down from a Dakota and is greeted by a senior RAF officer. Series of shots showing Nehru making slow progress through a small but eager crowd at Kallang. Nehru gets into a staff car before departing with Major-General Kimmins. Shot from a moving jeep in the motorcade with people running alongside. Shots of the crowd at the roadside; one spectator has a large tricolour. Mountbatten's car drives through a set of gates; an Indian soldier (a sentry?) offers the proper salute by presenting arms but is practically obscured by others in the crowd.
Notes
These events were filmed by two cameramen, Sergeants Gordon and Wilcox, and their footage is documented as JFU 548 and JFU 549. The division between the two is not clear and individual rolls of film may have been compiled out of sequence. However, due to the similarity of the two pieces of film, and the fact they are run together on the Viewing Copy, they are summarised as one in the summary above.
Jawaharlal Nehru was born in 1889. A leading figure of the Indian independence movement, Nehru would serve as the first Prime Minister of the Republic of India from 1947 to 1964, when he died in office. 'Pandit' is a Sanskrit word for a scholar or learned person. Almost exactly a year after this film was shot Mountbatten would become Viceroy of India, and would oversee the painful transition to independence.
An important piece of film which records the start of the crucial political relationship between Mountbatten and Nehru.
