THE CHINA MAIL, TUESDAY, JUNE 20, 1001.
THEY MAY SEND IN COUNTLESS ELABORATE RÈPORTS, BUT-
Would YOU pay an
office
boy £40,000 a year?
IT
is nice to think that there will be one happy man in Britain now,
Mr David Orinsby-Gore has just be- come British Ambassador in Washing- ton.
This is no mean plum. The salary may be nothing out of the ordinary, a mere £7,000 a year. Even so it is an improvement on the pay of a Cabinet Minister, There is also a tax-free allow- ance for expenses of £32,270, A man with that in his pocket does not need to stick Lo a bottle of beer for his supper.
The ambassador in Washington is not the only ne to pull in n handsome ullowance. In Paris the ambassador rubs along with £23,290. All over the world British Ambassadors see their living expenses at. tended to by you and me.
We
We British taxpayers are not mean. should not grudge a few million panunds to give our ambassadors an agreeable life if we kot value for money. But do we? Do we get anything at all?
مية
Cummings
EXCELLENCY
MAJESTY'S MESSERY
by A. J. P. TAYLOR
The British diplomatic service occasionally adds to the gaiety of nations when one of its members bults bilind the Iron Curtain, toi the accompaniment of cint denials, or fails to observe what Sehingg
about.
is going on in the country which be is supposed to know about.
Birt
what is the point of this vast establishment which is kept up at our expense?
otherwise
Long ago
There was some sense in the diplomatic system when it was Invented by the Republic of Venice many centuries ano. Tro vel was slow and dilleult. Policy was decided in secret by a few men in high places. Ambassadors could often find out what was going on. They could exercise real influence and supply real
information.
All this was tong ago. Arbase sadors now play little part when countries have got anything in- portant to riegotiate, Statesjoen do it themselves,
If the ambassador comes in at all, it is as a clerk to keep the minutes. Any shorthand- typist would do just as well. Churchill did not rely on our ambassador for his dealings with
worth negotiating Foreign policy is not a mystery any more, either in this or any Good ambassadors know this. other country. It can be picked Though they make work fot up easily by any intelligent man themselves, they take care that who reach his newspaper. We do it is unimportant work. It is not need ambassadors to do this their job to keep up an appear- ance of innocence or even ignor ance about what is going on.
The last
Ambassatiors, therefore, are no tonger needed for purposes of international
negotiations. But
they have other duties. For one thing they are supposed to sup- bly information about the coun- Try to which they are posted.
Yet they are the very last people who can do this success. Fully, Diplomatists abroad spend their time guing from one elektail party to another. They pick
trivial gossip. They up jever meet ordinary citizens or experience ordinary life.
Try to imagine the reports which the Soviet Ambassador
The
BRITANNIE
MESSAGES
All this social activity serves no useful parpuse. It is carried on as an end in itself, simply lo justify the existence of sinbos- example sndors. It is another
of Parkinson's great law that to All the time work expands (and the people) allotted to it. Nations co-operate when they have Interests in common. They quarrel when they have interests Stowever, they have one other In dispute. All the dinner parties job. The
on which they in the world do not make the
the sprod. most
which slightest difference in time and Lakes 3) most money. They case or the other. represent their country.
for s
One
Cheaper This does not inean that they
weier its policy or defend s
Paris.
FOR some time now in my
nocturnal perambulations on this City's Left Bank I have been fascinated by a woman of quite breath-taking beauty. The only words I can find to describe her is that she looks like a rich man's Ava Gardner.
She is, in fact,
Princess
Faiza, one of Farouk's four beautiful sisters.
During the past year Faiza, now 37, has been not only in exile from Egypt but a volun- tary refugee from fashionable set.
with her
Paris's
Paris
Farouk's lovely
sister falls on hard times
To revert to Faiza, however,
she is ot the moment
a poor Faiza has broken completely woman. Her considerable col
lection of jewels has been sold pasi and recently she made the break complete and there is good reason for be by suing her Turkish husband lieving that part of it has been Bulant Raouf Bey, for divorce,
badly sold. Her financial situa tion hos estranged her from both her brother and her
Farouk is an immensely rich
ADOPTED SON mother.
ап
Her husband is quite oddity. She married hi ten rears ago in Cairo. He is the grandson of the famous Khedive Ismail who conquered the Sudan for Egypt.
Bulant Raouf Bey, now in his | early fitiles, has an adopted son, a handsome young German to whom be has given the nick name of Monty, Monty Is studying to become an Interior decorator,
As though all that and Farouk were not enough Faiza has an astonishing mother who lives in Hollywood.
In the ture
have
becoming converted to Chris has returned quite un- Among the most notable is the tianity.
noticed to Paris. Sho is the Palais Hose, a ludlerous struc Duchess of Talleyrand, now part of Paris, that served as a most fashionable
in her ‘nineties, who Wos conference headquarters for the the first American heiress ill-fated Foreign Minlaters meet-
French ing in 1949. to marry into the
The Palais Rose Is now some- aristocracy.
Her maiden name was Anne thing of a derellet wreek, but Gould. She was the daughter the marble inside it must be of a great American
* small fortune. - rallway work tycoon and her marriage to the
The Duchess, now a widow, man. He claims, however, that completely fantaalle Count Boni has come to Paris to a dipunle over & numbered de Castellane, was a turn-of-ike look at the state of this palatial account in the Swiss Bank is century sensation.
house which Anne's father had a healthy first husband's "follies."
was one of her depriving him of a great part of his fortune.
distrust for aristocrats in gen- Faiza's mother who always erul and French aristocrats in
I watched her going through her handled
own Anancial particular, As a result of the the glided salons of this com- affairs is also a rich woman, arriage contract he gave Boni pletely tobulous house, It was Faixa herself has had some title more than extravagant extraordinarily moving to recall really dazzling marriage offers packet-money.
that this was oner the gayest Including one from A Greek
De Castellane was one of the house in Paris. millionaire. She has refused dandies of the nineties, of Im- them all as site has refused the precable but penniless aristo- charity of rich friends.
eratle background. Anne made DIPLOMATIC NOTE: A He- life of great a condition of the marriage khotos secret concerning the
that not only should her money State visit remain her
King Bandoula of own but also her the Belgians and his wife, Queen religion. She refused to become Fabiola, can
She teads simpleRy and ber circle of friends is now limited to the less succesful painters and writers.
I um grateful to her for her present mode of life. A glimpse of her in the smokler dives of
She is 67 year-old ex-Queen Nazli who has a closely guarded secret. She became converted recently to the Roman Catholle Church.
Forouk, obsessed by the idea St Gormaln des Fres is very that he will return to the rewarding. throne, has insisted that the news of his mother's conversion should not be made public.
of
JEWELS GONE
It is, in fact, the first instance a member of a ruling or would-be ruling Islamle family
DUCHESS
RETURNS
NE of the fabled figures
Of the gay
can
now be revealed. a Catholic because she wanted Apparently Queen Fabiola tuda to remain free to divorce.
who Divorce the did, indeed, 11 apprehensive--and years later, but only to mer eral de Gaulle for the first time. blame her about meeting Gen- Boni de Castellane's cousin, the Duke de Talleyrand.
DERELICT
To overcome this digiculty the King and Queen paid a private visit to Paris one week before the official visit so that Queen Fabiola could be initiated in the Now the Duchess is back in dificult technique of getting on Paris for the first ilme in 35 with de Gaulle, years.
There are many monuments 'ninotics in this city to her first marriage.
£35m Atlas base
is nearly ready
interests. They represent More than a century ago, John MORE
Great
than 1,500
Britain, or whatever country it Bright defined Briush fore an scientists and work- A-PROOF INSTALLATIONS
Bheir
are giving cocktail or dinner
parfies at home.
reports of our ambas, next. are on a higher level.
policy as "cither inure nor less
TO
than a gigmatic system of oul-men are working round tour relier for the British aris- the clock to beat the PROTECT ALL NORTH AMERICA
tocracy." The Poor Law has been
12
Steel towers
Con-
WHO WILL
W
BE NEXT?
7ITH the decision not to execute OK-Generals Challe and Zallar for lead- ing Tost montfi's Aiglers mutiny ono can almost name the date of the next mik- tory uprising.
According to my horoscope it will be some time in August. It seems to me that the French Tourist Agency should take ad-
of vantage
this intriguing
possibility.
advertisement:
I suggest to it the following
"Why cruise to Pie Carib- bean? Corne to France, the land of gentle revolutions. Think what a kick you will get out of lazing in the sun and knowing that your friends are worrying about you."
is the must literal sense. They annouie, by presence, that it exists,
How do they do this? Simply abolished for most people. Out-completion date on by an endless social round. door relief still goes on for the underground Atlas mis- tage on all but one of the 180- near the dope), are housed steel foot underground "allos" which towers the height of a 10-storey When they are not drinking diplomatic service.
weighing more cocktails
We could call these worthy, sile buses being built in had to be blasted out of the building and or dining out, they
granic rock of upper New York than 500 tons, conscientious people home, and the green hills near State and Vermont.
They are consitlered the International relations would
largest structures that engineers not be affected at all. The retired Plattsburgh, New York
have ever attempted to suspend Always to the sante persons, diplomats might even find useful less than 40 miles
from mechanical springs. The foreign Giplomatists in any work, in any case it would be
Bul the The Plattsburgh is one of
technique was capital meet each other all the cheaper to keep them i south of Montreal. In London sends home to Mus- time. As well, there is a select ness
missie launch planned to ensure that, even in than in expensive here
The sprawling £35,000,000 several Ades of "natives" who re- foreign capitals.
sites now
The event of an atomic attack, under installation, with its advorced ing cow. Worthless from the first company
volve
points the tower and its Athas rocket sentence to the last
from one embassy to the We all know that life costs te only some 2,000 feet from struction at strategic
States Would not be affected by any throughout the United mare nowadays. I spend more the Canadian border, is re- Of course, they have a very than my
garded as a major bulwark in and it is believed to be the shift in the rock structure. grandfather did on
After the giant Atlases are agrecable time of it. There is everything except, of
the protection of all of North buthing more delightful than to horses. It is time our ambas- America.
installed in each of the "silas," massive doors weighing 75 tons facing be the professional Friend of sndors went The way of the
each will close over the tops of martial." some foreign country and so be horse. invited ta all the embassy
-(London Expreas Service). parties, or even to visit the country Itself. I remember how,' in the harsh days of rationing after the war, the experienced Friend of this country and that fork used to carry a knife and in his pocket so as to make the most of the rare delicacies which be found in embassies and no- where else. Plenty of good drink and unlimited cigarettes into the bargain.
the United States during the last sadors
He reached for the tele- It is impossible that they should Wor phone, and discussed matters be. will President Roosevelt on their private line.
A saving
Nowadays,
with the jet air. plane, men can be at the other
In any professional work as a huustoran. I have read hundreds, perhaps thousands, of the elabor- ale reports in which ambassadors -British, French, and German tried to assess "public opinion." I doubt whether any of these was worth writing or reports
of suppited Information
cerned.
No mystery
any
of
end of the world in half a day vahre to the Government con Mr Macmillon goes over to Washington or Paris or Muscow when there is an important topic. to discuss. Mr Khrushchev does just the same. In fact, Sovie Ambassadors are even more un. A foreign correspondent of a employed than ours,
newspaper known far more Supposing there were no what is going on. And he gets ambassadors, would polley move his reports home far quicker. any slower, or decisions br If the Foreign Office subscrib- longer delayed? On the con- ed to the principal newspapers trary, We should save niany and read the foreign news in muddles, as well as a great deal them it would get more informa- of money. Countries would tion than it does now at the cost
negotiate only when there was of half a crown a day.
Does any sane man really believe that the reputation and Influence of his country are really strengthened by auch Koings-on? Politicians, We know, are mortal men. Are they no mortal that they can be naftened up by 4 few drinks or a good dinner?-
RUSSIANS ARE BUYING MORE FROM BRITAIN
British trade with Russia was only 11 per cent
of our total in 1960 but it is growing fast
FIGURES FOR THE FIRST 4 MONTHS OF EACH YEAR
IMPORTS FROM RUSSIA
course,
-(London Bryreza Service).
greatest engineering and com- struction Job ever handled by Although construction of the y country. project only started in 1900, Within each concrete "sllo" the cylinders, work has entered the advanced (whose walls are nine feet thick
Quote of the wock. — A Paris columnist: "Mrs Kennedy looked as vous as a French gonera! court
ner.
-London Expreta Service).
EXPORTS TO RUSSIA
1959 £12.7m
1960 £15.2m
7.7m
14.0m
1961 £20.8m
15.1m
MAJU IMOTS
MAIN EXPORT"
**Ah! f! Britale feited the Genzer Market
floo, i pesid grest Kennedy sa as aquall"
"Ash) If Britain Joined the Common Market
klau, & qvald groot Kannady un an visell**
CHART DESIÚNED BY MICHAEL BAND" "
London Express DETION.
*Cummings
**ART II Beltuin jolied the Commso Market. klus, I osult grist Kennedy sa a superior1"
London Expryer Berrics.