Discourteous
Sir: Were Auberon Waugh a lady would he curtsey to the President, namely the elected Sovereign of socialist France, Mr Mitterrand? His ignorance on the symbolism of a curtsey, namely that of kneeling in allegiance to the monarch, is exceeded only by his arrogant pomposity and contempt for democracy. Is he unaware that when the wife of a former American Ambassador at the Court of St James curtsied to Prince Charles, it created an uproar in Washington when it was declared that no American, let alone the wife of the President, equivalent to a Queen as consort to the Head of State, should bow his knee to any man?
Or has the War of Independence slipped his memory? If he only respects unelected Heads of State, perhaps, were Mr Waugh a lady, he would find himself obliged, by the same token, to curtsey to Mr Brezhnev. Rusheen Wynne-Jones Carlyle House, 16 Chelsea Embankment, London SW3
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