TOPICS OF THE DAY.

Press, Volume L, Issue 15014, 8 July 1914, Page 8

TOPICS OF THE DAY.

Austrian Etiquette. The statement contained in one .of yesterday's cable messages that full honours -were not accorded tho lato Archduke Francis Ferdinand, owing to tho fact that he was buried with bis morganatic wife, is illustrative ot tho extremely rigid ceremonial etiquette at tho Austrian Court. A glimpse of this etiquette was afforded tho inhabitants of Sydney in ]890; on tho occasion of thf Archduke's visit to Australia, and those who witnessed it say that tho visit of the 'Duko of York fomo years later was freo and easy in comparison. Tho British Duko and Duchess talked to those surrounding them as to their friends, and their visits to tho country were a picnic and a holiday to all thoso attending them. Not so in the case of tho Archduke. Even on his shooting expeditions ho was surrounded by a staff of high Austrian military officials, and it is said that if tho Roj'al boptlaco came unlaced, somo high official was on his kuoes in a moment, tying it up—not a servant, but a man who might command his squadron or his regiment in tho Austrian Army. Tho conversations which tho Australian squatters and State officials were able to have with tho Archduke were brief and formal. He was always kind and pleasant, but tho Court otiquetto cut any not strictly ceremonious relations short. The Sydney "Sun" relates that on ono occasion tho .Archduke was taken to see some Queensland blacks who were to givo a boomerang-throwing exhibition in the Sydney Domain. Tho exhibition had been arranged early, but tho blackfellows, who aro not particular about being punctual, had to be rounded up from tho city, and so it happened that tho Archduke was kept waiting a couple of mmutes or so before the performers arrived on tho scone. This was too much for the nerves of ono of tho foreign Consuls, who was in tho cab with him. After a minuto had elapsed ho rushed up to tho authorities who were arranging tho .exhibition. . "Oh dear, oh. dear!" he exclaimed; "you cannot keep his Royal Highness waiting there all tho time in a cab."-' Yot in spite of tho two or three minutes , delay, tho Archduke is said to have enjoyed the show immensely. It is possible, after all, that the stiffness was less in the Archduke himself than in the stately officials who surrounded him, and that in his case, as in that of others of the ■Hapsburgs, a warm and impulsive nature had to bo hidden by the rigid conventionalities which tho etiquette' of Continental Courts demands.