TOPICS OF THE DAY.

Press, Volume L, Issue 14988, 8 June 1914, Page 6

TOPICS OF THE DAY.

The Commercial Traveller Abroad. A memorandum issued by the British Board of Trade summarises the regulations in force with regard to British commercial travellers in various countries, some of which aro rather remarkable in their conditions. In Germany, the traveller merely requires a certificate to prove tbat he has had three 3'ears* previous good conduct, is over twenty-fivo years of age, aud is not a suspected spy, a gipsy, a deaf-mute, or an imbecile. Frauce simply subjects the Engb'sh traveller to tho samo rules as tho Frenchman, but many countries exact considerable amounts from travellers for permitting them to carry on their trade. In Paraguay a commercial traveller's license costs anything from £16 to £74 a half-year. In Mexico, the regulations are so' varied and complicated that they occupy seven pages of closely printed matter. In some American States the commercial traveller is taxed two or three dollars a day for carrying on his business. In tho Argentine Republic fees vary according to the article sold. The various provinces have their different rules, but a typical case is: haberdashery £52, groceries £35, boots £35, hats £17 10s. Men's clothing in this province is tho subject of a tax of £70, but tho sale of women's clothes is only taxed to tho extent of £17 10s. In Uruguay a license costs £21 a year, and expires oa Decomber 31st, irrespective of the date on which it was issued. Turning to Europe, we find that in Scandinavia the commercial traveller's license costs £5 lis a month; Austria forbids the solicitation of orders from private individuals, except for motor-cars, type-' writers, machinery, and building materials; in Switzerland tho right of selling to trading firms is gratuitous, £>\ a month being the tax if individuals are concerned; while Russia demands a personal license of £5 5s 6d, and a fee from' the trading firm employing him c\ £15 16s 7d. An interesting regulation is that regarding commercial travellers visiting the State of Sirohi, in India. They must provide themselves with a guard for the protection of life and property. Stage-Managing a Royal Visit.. Tho public" when it witnesses a groat ceremonial such as the revent visit of the King and Queen of England to Paris, hardly realise the enormous amount of arranging, planning, and rehearsing which have been gone through to make things go without a hitch. The cares and duties of the stage-manager of a theatrical production must be trivial compared with those of tbe man to whom this task is entrusted. Tho official who engineers big public ceremonies of this kind in Franco is the Director of the Protocol, M. William Martin. He holds a position something like that of the Lord Chamberlain in England. His role as Grand Master of Ceremonies is a particularly hard one, as a correspondent of the "Daily Mail" points out, for while in England and Germany, and especially in Spain, the high posts of State are in the hands of men who have inherited by tradition a knowledge of court ceremonial and formal procedure, in France Ministries are constantly changing, and men of all classes 'attain the highest offices. When an unusually august event

; like the recent Royal visit draws near, the Director of the Protocol has to set to work weeks beforehand with his staff,' planning, arranging, and scheming, drawing out time-tables and programmes, sketching ground-olans of the seats at banquets, reviews, theatres, and official receptions, making thfl most minute calculations of time and space. Every detail of the visit of the King and Queen of England was accurately calculated and visualised beforehand by M. Martin. He had long conferences with the Military Governor, the railway authorities, the municipal councillors, and the Prefect of Poiice; he drove over tho exact •-outes that their Majesties were to follow, to Aut«uil, to Vincennes, and to the opera; ho arranged where each guest was to sit at the official banquets ; even on the great day itself he was on the scene, tireless and everalert, watching every detail, timing every ceremony, so that it might not last'a minute too long, and thus put thb rest of the programme out of joint. The position occupied by M. Martin (who, by the way, belongs to an old English'family which migrated to France in 1780) is a curious one in a Republic, where tradition is lightly esteemed and elaborate ceremonial dispensed with. But, as the "Daily Mai'" writer observes, somebody has to go in first to dinner even in a Republic, and somebody has to decide as to who that somebody is to be.