Figaro in Diplomacy

New Zealand Listener, Volume 19, Issue 491, 19 November 1948, Page 9

Figaro in Diplomacy

[Na broadcast in the BBC's Third | Programme the Earl of Lytton recently gave a vignette of Paris in the 1880’s and the flowering of the Entente Cordiale. Of the two men most responsible for giving an informal touch to the diplomacy of their day one was his father, the British Ambassador in France, who made the Embassy a sort of Salon des Arts frequented by actors and actresses, poets, sculptors and painters; the other was the future King Edward VII, then Prince of Wales, whose popularity caused him to be adopted as "the prototype of the ideal prince." But there were other personalities who contributed to the understanding between England and France. One, said Lord Lytton, was his father’s valet, Wil. liam Henry Todd, "spiritual descendant of the great Figaro. He talked fluent French, but with an accent certainly no better than that of Mr. Winston Churchill, and he had the habit of joining quite naturally in the conversation at diplomatic dinners. Walking round the table behind the chairs he would check M. Blowitz, correspondent of The Times, who was said to be the most powerful man in Europe, when he seemed to be monopolising too much of the conversation. When he felt that some faux pas was going to be made he would suddenly hand a dish and save the situation. He knew so much about European history that he could lead the conversation into desired channels." |