As the King lands in Samoa, he’s out of the frying pan and into the fire

The roads in Samoa are lined with the small fluttering flags of the Commonwealth.

Newly painted houses, bright under the cloudy skies, tell the story of the 56 countries of the “family of nations”, village after village decked out in the colours of each country in the most charming welcome to an international conference imaginable.

The King and Queen, freshly landed from Sydney via the Royal Australian Air Force, were swept through by convoy to the island’s finest beachside resort.

As they looked out the window, it is hard to imagine what they might have been feeling.

At the end of an occasionally bruising but ultimately successful first leg of their trip Down Under, and the start of the second, they are – against what seemed to be the odds – riding high.

The Australian public, largely, extended the warmest possible welcome.

The King and Queen added barbecues, a walkabout among 10,000 well-wishers, and a sneezing alpaca to the memories they have made over 60 years’ worth of royal visits.

They must be tired, with their busiest daily schedules since the King’s cancer diagnosis. And there may be some relief that they have reached the end of one leg of a challenging trip intact.

If Australia – the first tour since the King’s cancer diagnosis and his first visit Down Under as monarch – was a test, it was one they seemed to have passed with flying colours.

At times, it did not look like they could succeed. The King, who had paused his cancer treatment to make the journey, was confronted by a screaming senator in Parliament House who told him, “you are not our King” and “f--- the colony”.

The royal party were followed by a small but noisy number of protestors who unfurled a “decolonise” banner outside several engagements. One vandal, coincidentally or not, threw red paint on a statue of Queen Victoria while they were in town.

The programme was short, necessarily, because of the King’s health: his only concern, friends said, was that he could not do more.

“The easy thing would have been not to come,” said a source. “No one would have blamed him, given the recent health challenges and the distances involved.”

But come he did.

The palace was well aware of the risks: bubbling republicanism, the emotive fight for Indigenous rights, the long-distance travel with cancer.

“But it’s not in the King’s nature to shy away from potential challenges, when there is so much he wants to achieve and when his affection for and commitment to Australia is so sincere,” said the source.

There were attempts to counter the potential pitfalls head on. The King was already scheduled to meet with Aboriginal leaders for talks before that high-profile parliament protest, and was photographed hugging a survivor of the “stolen generation” with warmth and what looked like relief a day later.

A carefully controlled walkabout, known as a “meet the people” in Australia, outside a church on day three paid off, with smiling cheering supporters buoying the King, Queen and their aides.

The issue of republicanism came up, but members of the public and media delighted in telling the British journalists present that they were far more obsessed with it than anyone on the ground.

Both sides claimed victory.

Esther Anatolitis, co-chair of the Australian Republic Movement, said it had been a “galvanising time”, adding: “We’ve been delighted to see people from all over Australia and all over the world asking why Australia still has a king.”

Philip Benwell, national chairman of the Australian Monarchist League, said the “fervour and size of the crowds that came out not just to see the King and Queen but to enthusiastically welcome them to Australia” proved that the “monarchy remains in the heart of the majority of the Australian people”.

Then, on the final day, came the fun. The King and Queen wielded large tongs to flip sausages at a barbecue, the monarch delivered a speech full of local lingo in which he pronounced the food “top tucker” and a menagerie of animals from an alpaca in a bow tie to a parrot greeting the Queen with “hello” turned out to lighten the mood.

It culminated in that Sydney Opera House moment. The size of the crowds was impressive and the enthusiasm of the welcome remarkable.

The local media was energetic and kind; their pages and broadcasts considered by the palace to be a better measure of success on tour than the British media at home.

The couple were waved off on Wednesday morning by Anthony Albanese, the Australian prime minister, an avowed republican whose welcome and attentiveness spoke volumes about both the country’s hosting skills and his growing relationship with the head of state.

It did not, one source said pointedly, feel like the “farewell tour” the Australian Republican Movement had pushed for.

“Thank you to all who came out to show their support,” Buckingham Palace told the Australian public as the monarch took off from Sydney, “and for so many special memories”.

On Thursday, they will begin their state visit to Samoa in earnest. It will be a tour of two halves.

First will come the sights, sounds and smells of the small island nation which has prepared to welcome its international guests in traditional and spectacular fashion. Second, the official formal duties of the Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting (CHOGM). The King will be attending the summit for the first time as the head of the Commonwealth.

When it comes to potential controversy, it is out of the frying pan and into the fire.

If in Australia, the King listened to the emotive arguments of those fighting for First Nation rights, at CHOGM he will hear the ever-growing, ever-powerful calls for reparations for the slave trade.

There is public pressure in some quarters for the King to apologise personally “for his family’s involvement” in slavery and the ties between the monarchy and the slave trade.

In this, the King’s hands are constitutionally tied. He cannot and will not deviate from the Government’s position on reparations, which is that they will “not be on the agenda” in Samoa. He is likely, sources say, to reiterate his previous acknowledgement of the dark and painful history and hopes for a fairer future in the Commonwealth. It may not be seen as enough.

“The King’s presence in Samoa during ongoing discussions about reparatory justice presents him with a critical opportunity to use his voice to progress dialogue among Commonwealth member countries,” said Prof Kingsley Abbott, director of the Institute of Commonwealth Studies at the University of London.

In other matters, the monarch is on far safer ground. The island nations in particular, including Samoa itself, hope to discuss climate change in earnest, with the King seen as a genuine leader in that field.

Outside of the formal meetings, there will be a chance to celebrate all that makes the Pacific island special.

On Saturday, as the King and Queen fly off again – this time for home – there will be a second chance to sit back and think.

Just as the world has changed, so the Royal family’s life overseas is beginning to change with it.

Where once a trip would all but guarantee jollity, they are now becoming a vehicle for protest, where those who feel marginalised in their home countries make use of the world’s media watching and the King and his family doing their best to listen.

This tour, it seems, may become a blueprint for how to do it going forward. In factoring in potential protests in advance and tackling them head-on with meetings, as the King did in Australia, the palace has gone some way to changing the narrative.

In embracing some fun too, they have guaranteed those all-important pictures that will find their way into the history books.

If Australia was a test, Samoa may be an even bigger one.

“There is every confidence that His Majesty will demonstrate his role as head of the Commonwealth every bit as skilfully as he did his role as Australia’s head of state,” said a palace source.

Thursday will bring a variety of ceremonial welcomes, a mangrove walk, and some local arts and crafts before the more serious discussions begin.

“We can’t wait to visit Samoa for the first time together and to experience the warmth of ancient traditions with your remarkable people,” the King and Queen said via social media on Wednesday night. “Feiloa’i ma le manuia!”

It translates roughly as “see you... and good luck”.