Old-world custom at the United Nations fading out

Press, Volume CXV, Issue 33740, 13 January 1975, Page 6

Old-world custom at the United Nations fading out

(By

ERIC PACE,

in the “New York Times.’’)

NEW YORK.

In French it is “le baise-main,” in German “der Handkuss,” in Urdu “ath ko piyar karna,” but in any language, the old world custom of greeting a woman by kissing her hand is fading from the United Nations.

in years gone by. when i delegations were aglitter with princes, barons, and gentlemen of the old school, no grand reception was complete without its quota of hand-kisses of the formal, or diplomatic, style, which is to say without actual contact between lips and hand. "But now hand-kissing is definitely in a decline,” said Marie-Pierre Herzog, a high-; bom Frenchwoman who heads the humanities division of the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural; Organisation (U.N.E.5.C.0.). |

“Since World War 11, such things have been going out of style except in certain; social layers,” said Mrs | Herzog, the wife of a former French Cabinet Minister, while beer-drinkers bellied up at the bar of the United: Nations delegates’ lounge. Surprise gesture

But recently Edwin Ogebe Ogbu, Nigeria’s Ambassador to the United Nations, swept across a Secretariat meeting room and kissed an American i friend’s hand. Splendid in his African i

attire. Ambassaor Ogbu kept his lips a proper distance from the hand in question. He later observed gallantly that he had acted, not out of diplomatic poiitesse, but because his friend was "so pretty.” Other notables, in typical United Nations fashions, are unable to agree on just why the hand-kiss is in eclipse, but they offer various theories.

For one thing, they say, foreign delegations nowadays contain fewer titled aristocrats than in the past — and it is the aristocracy that has always had particular enthusiasm for such refineaments.

The United Nations diplomatic list, compiled after a recent General Assembly session, contains almost no delegates with noble titles, while the equivalent list from 20 vears earlier included two princes, a count, three barons and an array of other grandees. This shift is exemplified by the changes in the United I Nations’ own potocol office. Originally it was headed by la French count. Jean de

iNoue. Then it was taken over by a Belgian who was said to be a baron but preferred to call himself plain Pierre de Muelemeester. Amiable Turk

And now it is run by an amiable and untitled Turk, Sinan Arif Korle, who polished up his manners as a graduate student at lowa State University. Mr Korle never, never kisses hands, formally, at least. And he wasn’t even shaking hands for a while because of a virus picked up, his office thinks, while greeting dignitaries in the drafts of Kennedy Airport. Other vagaries of the American environment have contributed to the handkiss’s decline, United Nations officials say.

“Partly it’s due to the liberalism of the women in our host city, New York,” one senior Secretariat official reported. “American women don’t seem to appreciate having their hands kissed.” This American influence works in insidious ways. Ford Foundation funds underwrote the United Nations’ library, for instance, and if a foreign diplomat consults its reference shelves he finds discouraging evidence that Americans find hand-kissing odd.

“Social Usage in the Foreign Service,” a handbook put out by the United States State Department in 1957, says warily: “In countries where it is an established custom for foreign men to kiss the hands of married women on introduction, this should be regarded as what it is, simply a courteous gesture.” And the United Nations’ copy of “Vogue’s Book of Etiquette” by Millicent Fenwick kisses off the subject in these weary terms: Complicated question “The whole question of hand kissing is becoming very complicated. The old rule was that men of all countries which belonged to the Latin tradition kissed the hands of married women '(but never of young girls),

instead of shaking hands. If j foreigners would observe the | rule, the situation would be simple; but some foreigners,, who know that hand kissing: is not an American custom,; do not kiss the hands of; American women. Until ( foreigners make up their I minds to one course or an-i other, all that American women can do is to be alert; about it.” One American woman who; is said to have inspired con-| siderable hand-kissing was) Mrs Marietta Tree, the handsome patrician who had the rank of ambassador in during the 19605. the United States delegation “She certainly got her hand kissed a lot,” a European noblewoman and United Nations veteran recalled wistfully. To be sure, there are several ardent hand-kissers among the diplomats bn other delegations, mostly from countries with old traditions of court life: Poland, the seedbed of Radziwills and such; France, which gave the world Versailles; and Austria, once the Hapsburgs’ home.

“We take great pride in kissing a lady’s hand a little more elegantly than some of our neighbours,” one Austrian official said. “We like to do it because it’s a bit of tradition and a sign of great respect. “And,” he added, “it’s nice.”