ETIQUETTE

Evening Post, Volume CXI, Issue 85, 10 April 1926, Page 20

ETIQUETTE

SECURELY ENTRENCHED IN OFFICIAL CIRCLES.

Etiquette is a nasty, ticklish sort of creature; even with a book of rules it i 3 not always easy to cope with its various exactments, writes Doris Arthur Jones in the "Daily Chronicle." During its heyday in mid-Victorian times it abused its devoted followers shamefully; long afternoon hours were wasted leaving cards, and hostesses were driven distracted over dinner lists. Thank goodness it is an abuse which has disappeared almost entirely from social life. It is, however, still securely entrenched in the official circles which gave it birth; where it is treated with due lespect. Without it official life would almost cease to exist.

Diplomatic etiquette is the easiest to vnderstand; Ambassadors, Ministers, first, second, and third -secretaries, no matter how powerful or how insignificant the Powers they represent, all take precedence according to the date of their appointments; the doyen of tho Ambassador or Minister who has been there the longest, and so on down to a Diplomatic Corps in any country is the simple attache. There is a story of a young unpaid attache, the son of a marquis, who was sent: to St. Petersburg. At a dinner party at the English Embassy he was rather disgruntled at having to take into dinner some very insignificant person. ' The Ambassador, himself the son- of a marquis, heard about it, and said to the boy next day, "My dear So-and-So, when will you learn that an unpaid; attache is the meanest of God's creatures?" On the whole,' eiquette sits easily and pleasantly on diplomatic shoulders; not so with, officials in the Colonial Service, if, I may be allowed to judge from seven years' experience. Though sColonial Office regulations are lengthy and explicit, feuds are frequent and bitter. I know of one official only who emerged triumphant from a fray. He had a post on the Gold Co^st. The poor man fell ill with black-water fever, the most deadly scourge of the West of Africa. His life was despaired of, and as funerals have to take place twenty-four hours after death, his coffin was ordered. To everyone's surprise and joy he recovered. Before his convalescence was complete he received a demand from the Treasury for the price of his coffin. He refused, because he said (1) he'd not ordered it, and (2) he'd not used it. An acrimonious correspondence followed, during the course of which he suggested to the Treasury they might recoup themselves by selling the coffin as a good second-hand one. He emerged as successfully from this bout with his official superiors as tie. had done from his attack of fever.