FERDINAND'S COURT

Evening Star, Issue 20316, 26 October 1929, Page 30

FERDINAND'S COURT

SOME SECRET HISTORY Mme Sultana Petroff, wife of a Bulgarian soldier and statesman, cannot concentrate or view objectively, but she spent thirty years at the Court of Bulgaria, and, relying on memory and imagination, has published a book that might be well worth editing. Pages of droll and trivial matter would have to be eliminated, but much remains of interest. “ Foxy Fcrdy ” has certainly been well snapped. The author has an almost unlimited admiration for his

courage, diplomacy, and patriotism, but her reminiscences reveal his arrogance and uncertainty of temper. His attitude towards persons of inferior clay was as superior as that of Louis XIV. or Lord Curzon. and he regarded the slightest familiarity as rank biasghemy. Imagine bis feelings yit a ourt hall when he was _ conversing with a Russian journalist in an inner room, and Marquis Impeliali, the Italian Minister, impatient at the length of the entertainment, burst in. stared rudely, and pulled out bis watch. Ferdinand immediately ordered the closing of the ball, and within a month he secured Imperiali’s transfer to Belgrade. Paleologue, the French Minister, incurred even greater wrath. King Fer dinand. chatting intimately, had ohaffingly complained of something Queen Eleanora had done,’ Pa'-clcgne twisted this into a story, which ho related to a Paris Socialist editor, who elaborated. it into a comic article. The result was that Paleologue was recalled. was not accorded a farewell audience, and failed to receive the usual decoration. Another +?-no, Mme f^mentovslm, the Rushan M ; nist'”-’s wife, issued in vPit : ons for a I'a’i. a , '”r' , p/ , h i ng t* lo Kind’s ah I ''-de-ramp and the O r o P n’s Indv in writin" n"' 1 '-"owin'- ♦hat qn-'tte renni-ed he- ♦n iuvß" the!’* Jf n . jesties dir’ctly. T'-r'imon punished her hy forbidding officers and courtiers to attend, with result that the ballroom was almost empty. Ferdinand . was always subject to whims.' which were hy no means always logical. One day he. paid, a , brief

visit to Mme Petrol? at her house, accompanied by an aide-de-camp._ There was nothing unusual about this, .but tlv evil tongues of Sofia made scandal, and an opposition paper published a malicious article entitled “Why Petrol! is Minister of W r ar.” Whereupon Ferdinand vented his wrath on the innocent lady, putting her and her husband into Coventry and requiring dutiful courtiers to treat them as lepers. This lasted for four years, after, which peace was restored and Mme PctrolF sat beside him at a din net. Commenting on the recent estrangement, he said; “1 know people ceased bowing to you, pretending they acted by my orders. Such is the servility towards mo that I should not bo surprised to hoar of men ignoring their own wives if they were supposed to have incurred my displeasure.”

CLEARING OUT GUESTS. Mine Petrol! lias also many stories [ about the Diplomatic Corps, Sir Ai j thur Nicolson, the British Minister, was charming and , popular, but he gave out from the beginning that he had not come to Bulgaria in search of fatigue He sent word round that all entertainments at the Legation would close at 11. Damtch the Serbian Minister, and his wife did not know this, and remained on after a dinner party when the other guests had retired, though Sir Arthur stood waiting in front of them expectantly, “ I have ordered my carriage lor 12,” Mme Danitch said;'“at the Serbian Court that is the usual hour.” “Oh! never mind, ■ my man will fetch you a carriage and see you home now.” “ Did you ever hear such insolence? Mme Danitch went about exclaiming, “ He asked us to dinner and then actually showed us the. door.” ’ Bachmetieff,, when Russian Minister, used to go to the Union Club every morning to meet his friends and read the papers. Picking up ‘ Simplicissimus,.’ the German ‘Punch ’ be found a gross caricatn-c of the Tsar, and war that he tore it up am' informed the secretary that he would tear up all future con : "s. Sir George >Buchanan, the British Minister, who was then carrying on diplomatic war fare against Bachmetieff, brought the I matter before the committee, which 1 demanded a written apology and pay 1 ment for the destroyed paper. The : answer' was Ills resignation, and that

of the whole staff of the Russian Legation. After a dinner given by the French Minister the Secretary of the Legation told everybody’s fortune by palm istry. When ho came to the Minister Manuschelf he grew .very serious and said: “Beware of water. Avoid the sea. A great danger threatens you.” No one took much notice, but a month later Manusheff went to Euxinograd, the Royal palace on the Black Sea. Ho seemed fascinated and attracted by the water, proceeding to bathe at the first opportunity. He dived in and was never seen again, alive or dead. Thenceforward the Secretary of the Legation steadfastly refused to tell anv more fortunes.

Mmo Pet roll' has much to tell about profiteering and other scandals in Bulgaria during the war. German officers, business men, and greedy adventurers flooded the land like locusts. “ Disorder and anarchy reigned _ everywhere. The dishonest . combinations and abuses which characterise wars were all in full swing. Wo were overrun by mushroom speculators, not to mention the military police and the secret police, with their inevitable blackmail. The General Headquarters was in open revolt against the Government, protesting against the export of wheat and other foodstuffs to Germany when they wore indispensable to the Bulgarian Army <,nd population. . . . The soldiers at the front were short of hoots nirl clothes and almost starved, while feasts, routs, and extravagant dissipation wore flaunted at. the capital, and scandalous fortunes ' were made by trnf fickers from Switzerland. Meanwhile wo heard of the incredible care wbic' the Germans took of their soldiers who were warmly clad, well shod ■” i d well fed.” Bulgarian officers took the best car; ioy while wounded soldier 'md to he taken to the ir '•’mbsring ox-raHs. —Hubert Vivian.