The Consul's Life.

Press, Volume L, Issue 149814, 30 May 1914, Page 10

The Consul's Life.

Most British Consuls, especially those in ports on the track of tourists, could write an entertaining volume on the humour, difficulties, and embarrasments of their work. Such a book would not be flattering to their travelling countrymen. One of these British representatives, in an article in the "Morning Post," gives us a glimpse of the Consul's, daily round. Tho consular candidate's fitness for office is severely tested in the examination room, but what tests could prove the existence of tact sufficient to deal with the appeal of a deserted wife who pencilled on her visiting card, "Husband gone again. Please arrange. Act at once. Extremely artful"? Even more embarrassing was the situation created by a lady who sent the Consul a parcel containing most of her hair, and demanded the exaction of instant 'satisfaction from the husband who had cut it off. Many and varied are the situations with which a Consul has to deal. A cosmopolitan variety performer who has captivated a stolid Briton brings him to the Consulate so that his promise to marry her may be signed and sealed in binding fashion. "Th'stressed British subjects," a class to which the

Consul is enjoined to extend his v 0 od offices, take up much of his time. Ho turns away the frauds whon he can detect, them, and reconsiders his ve- rdict on human nature wln-n stranded "theatricals" pay back the rconov he has advanced for their fares. Captains of merchantmen disturb him. at all sorts of ; nconvenient hours to require him to deal with stowaways, placu Q patients, madmen, murderers, and mutineer*, the amenities of lif o j n places like Nice and Cairo are impaired by the vexatious demands of travellers, many of whom regard their Consul its a sort of Cook's agent. "Old ladias insist on his indicating the emporium most appropriate for tbe purchase of hairpins, fussy Anglo-Indian colonels enlist his services in the recovery of lost articles of luggage, an( j vulgar persons of every age and sex pester him with frivolous enquiries quite outside his* province, and have even been known to approach him for the purchase of postage stamps." And of course, ho is expected to write trade reports for tho benefit of British manufacturers, and help commercial travellers. Then when he poes to England on leave, friends ask him, "But what in the world do you do with yourself out there?"