GOLD LACE FOR FRENCH PRESIDENT.

Wairarapa Age, Volume XXV, Issue 10713, 17 September 1913, Page 3

GOLD LACE FOR FRENCH PRESIDENT.

Once again the question of a beautiful official costume far the President of the Republic is agitating the minds of certain Paris newspaper editors, the London Chronicle says. At present the President's sole 1 uniform for State occasions is a dress suit (as Londoners recently had opportunity _to see), which is held to be in keeping with Republican simplicity, as opposed to the gorgeousness and display of Monarchist countries. 'But'there is .a great section of the French people, who 'would like their President .make a better : 'disP&y' when officially .representing' France abroad, or when welcoming some visiting Monarch to Paris., They feel he would look all 'the better for a little.gold lace ? hut •the difficulty is to provide a uniform 'which will not wound Republican sentiments! Felix Faure, who held strong views on. most things, including dress, designed, with the help of a celebrated Paris tailor, a Presidential uniform which was a compromise between' the uniforms of a French general and a French Ambassador. It was to.: have been worn when visiting the Czar, but at the last moment the President's courage failed him. Probably he had fears of the political consequences of so daring an innovation! and he was content with the convenional dress coat as at present prescribed by the French protocol. , .