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"SHIRT-SLEEVE" DIPLOMACY.

Some choice stcriesof the eld days of American diplomacy, when men hopelessly ignorant of etiquette were sent ta dwell near the seats of the mighty and punctilious. were told at a gathering of diplomatists in New York the other day. A Minister to Turkey, on his arrival in Constantinople, tcok up his quartern at a hotel, while he looked out for a suitable house. The Grand Vizier, attended by a suite, called to pay his respects, and was shown into the Minister's only room. The Minister was lying on his bed, with his coat and boots off, as the Vizier entered. "How do you do" said the Minister, waving his hand toward a chair. "Take a seat, and have a cigar." The Turk sat down, and the minister remained on his bed taJking. Suddenly, he remembered himself, and jumped up, saying: "I guess I'd better put; on my coat, but I hope you'll excuse me from putting on my shoes. They hurt my teet." Another Minister resolved to save half his salary. American diplomatists are notoriously underpaid, so economy on this scale was almost heroic. However, by taking a top floor in a cheap lodging-house and never entertaining any one, he managed to save the money. Another representative after arriving at his post, wrote to the Secretary for Foreign Affairs: "Dear Sir,—l am told that the first thing for me to do is to leave cards on trie prominent Government officials and on the other diplomats here. Now, I don't know

who they are or 1-ere to find them. I send you a nnmber of my cards, and 1 will take it kin l!y if you will please see to it that tli°" reach the right persons." Hov,c er, "shirtsleeve" diplomacy, as it is called, is 1 sometimes very effective. A new American Minister at Constantinople opened the conversation in his first audience with the Sultan by saying to his Majesty, through the interpreter: "Your Majesty, I don't intend to i tell you a single lie while I remain j accredited to your Court, and I don't expect you to tell me any lies either." The Sultan bowed, and as he passed out of the room in company with the Grand Vizier, was heard to say to that dignitary: "I like what the American said. I think I can trust him." That Minister's term of office was highly successful.

Permanent link to this item
Hononga pūmau ki tēnei tūemi

https://paperspast.natlib.govt.nz/newspapers/WAG19100317.2.9.2

Bibliographic details
Ngā taipitopito pukapuka

Wairarapa Age, Volume XXXII, Issue 9996, 17 March 1910, Page 4

Word count
Tapeke kupu
401

"SHIRT-SLEEVE" DIPLOMACY. Wairarapa Age, Volume XXXII, Issue 9996, 17 March 1910, Page 4

"SHIRT-SLEEVE" DIPLOMACY. Wairarapa Age, Volume XXXII, Issue 9996, 17 March 1910, Page 4

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