HINTS TO BRITISH DIPLOMATS

Press, Volume LXXXV, Issue 25738, 25 February 1949, Page 7

HINTS TO BRITISH DIPLOMATS

BOOK ON ETIQUETTE ISSUED LONDON, February 23. Hints on how British diplomats should behave abroad at events ranging from official meals to funerals are given in a handbook on etiquette just issued by the British Foreign Office. The book already has made its appearance in Washington, and its “leakage” into non-diplomatic circles has caused wide comment, according to newspaper reports. The book gives advice to “John Bull,” a new diplomat going abroad. The first hint is that for official meals. Mr and Mrs Bull must arrive five minutes early. Mr Bull must speak JX) Mrs Bull at least once during the evening, and “must not therefore spend an entire hour lost in the garden with a girl.” The book says: “It is a good idea to learn bridge, for it is generally necessary to stay to the bitter end of even the most tedious dinners, and it is much more agreeable to play a hand of cards than to sit up half the night making conversation with some boring important old lady.” A hint for behaviour at lunerals is: “Many an interesting political connexion was conceived by a certain foreign head of a mission in a convulsive handshake in a funeral cortege, and cemented by giving his acquaintance a car lift home from the cemetery.” The Marshal of the piplomatic Corps, Mr Marcus Cheke. wrote most of the book.