Evening star., 1928-12-30
BY MARGARET B. DOWNING.

BY MARGARET b. DOWNING.
President Coolidge does not break a
law of the Medes and Persians, SO TO
speak, in eliminating the New year
reception Many times before TINS mas
been done and as recently as January
l. 1914, President Wilson and ms family
departed for the South and no nag flew
over the White House on the day that
fhteful year was ushered In !ll-health,
bereavement, national calamity, have
been reasons why not only the New
Year reception but other of the official
levees were omitted. Many will readily
recall that the Army and Navy recep-
tion scheduled for February, 1922. was
nostnoned because of the sad accident
which befell the Shenandoah. But this
function at the white House held Janu-
arv / is typical of official amenity, and
every division of life has taken part.
including during the late hours the
general public, and, no matter how grave
the reason may be for leaving it out
of the program, many are soreiy disap-
part of Washington's social world the
diplomatic corps, the breakfast given
by the Secretary of State and Mrs.
Kellogg Will offer compensation. In
fact. this gathering, held in recent
years in the Hall of the Americas. ap-
peals TO every member of the foreign
contingent and to their ladies. whereas
many Of the latter did not feel entirely
at ease at the New Year reception at
the presidential mansion which, ac-
ooroing to all traditions. was given for
the masculine element alone.
X X x x
But since President Coolidge will not
mold levee on January l, 1929, a ques-
tion which has agitated Washington for
some past time will remain unSolved
This is whether the Latin American
diplomats have renounced regalia in the
evening and returned to the simple
days before 1900 when they met in
council and each nation selected an
appropriate uniform for its diplomats
to wear on what is known in Europe
as court occasions" The Cuban am
bassador, Senor Orestes Ferrara, has
never worn diplomatic uniform since
he came to Washington and other
LatinS from the southern continent
don them so seldom that it would seem
they have privately reached an agree
ment to relegate the fashion to OBJ
livion. This was most pronounced at
the levee which the President and Mrs.
Coolidge gave for the diplomatic corps
November Is. Out of the large con-
tingent present from the 20 Latin
American republics probably not more
than 10 wore the former brilliant re-
gala OF their countries and these were
usually newcomers to this Capital
Senor Malbran, the Argentine Ambas-
sador, was in the conventional evening
clothes of the men of this country, and
the Chilean Ambassador looked like an
official of the State Department. When
the republics of Europe that wear no
regalia, but occasionally a military or
der or two. are counted with the Latin
nations, 1t will be seen that in Wash |
1ngton two-thirds of the corps have re-
turned to republican simplicity and the |
gold lace and embroidery survives only |
in Oriental nations and among the |
European monarchies.
X X X
Mr.. William Phillips, United States |
Minister to Ottawa, will after the COM
ing year no longer comprise the en-
tire diplomatic circle at the Capital
of the Dominion. Great Britain,
France and Japan will exchange en-
voys with the government of Mr..
Mackenzie King, and the foreign circle
at Ottawa will assume an impressive |
aspect. The State Department has
recently In quiet way called attention |
in Washington, now of such formidable |
proportions, is just 1913 years old this |
December, and when President John |
Adams removed the Capital from Phila-
delphia to the banks of the Potomac |
but four representatives of foreign gov |
ernmentS were in his wake-the |
Spanish minister, Senor Carlos de
uujo; the French charge d'affaires rep
reSenting the consulate under Napoleon
I, M. Louis l.. Pinchon: the British
charge d'affaires, Mr.. Edward Thorn
ton, grandfather of the popular Min
lister who came in 1868, Sir Edward
Thornton, who built the present Brit
ish establishment on Connecticut ave-
nue. and N street, and the Danish con-
sui, Pedro Petersen. Four years earlier,
when President Washington was in
Quoted into Office, April 80, 1889, but
two ENJOYS of kings, those of France
and Spain, asked recognition, M. Otto
for Louis XVI, a secretary under the
special messenger of the Bourbon mon
arch, who presented his fluctuations to
President Washington on his election
and then withdrew, and Count Jose de
War, who came on similar mission
from Carlos w of Spain.
X
Almost coincidentally with the ending
of Mr. Phillips isolation in Ottawa,
Mr.. Frederic A. Sterling, dispatched by
the Washington government to Dublin,
capital of the Irish Free State, has re-
ceived colleagues from three other ma
tions, and, like the envoy to Ottawa,
he will become dean of a corps which
will no doubt increase by leaps and
bounds. Canada soon is to send an en-
yoy to its sister state under the British
Empire act. France will do the same and
the Commonwealth of Australia already
has selected its representative. Great
Britain maintains q hirh commissioner