JARGON.

Evening Star, Issue 23723, 2 November 1940, Page 10

JARGON.

Mr Churchill, attacking the jargon of Whitehall, has invited his colleagues and the heads of Civil Service departments to condense their reports and avoid “ officialese.” He quails at such phrases as: “It is also of importance to bear in mind the following considerations . . .” ; or “ Consideration should be given to the possibility of carrying into effect. . . .” Mr A. P. Herbert, M.P., who in the pages of ‘ Punch ’ has been waging a war for the same simplicity and directness, calls jargon “ Jungle English ” and “ RibbonWriting.” Sir Arthur Quiller-Couch, another hater of woolly abstractions and pompous periphrases, once remoulded Hamlet’s soliloquy' in an exercise beginning; “To be, or the contrary? Whether the former or the latter be preferable would seem to admit of some difference of opinion.” “ King’s English ” has for three reigns past been a model, as is Mr Churchill’s own, and nothing could be better than speeches -that have come in the last score of years from Lord Baldwin, Lord Halifax, Mr Chamberlain, and other British Ministers. Departmental English, on the other hand, in all parts of the Empire has had much cause to be a byword for its cumbronsness. Not only does it prefer, usually, to express simple ideas by the greatest number of words, and the longest words, possible, but it coins words that are not required and finds no quality so attractive in them as vagueness. Mr Herbert recently pointed out that, where the captains’ reports on the Battle of the River Plate spoke of “ officers and ( men," the Admiralty’s account of the action compiled from them refers continually to “ personnel.” “It is fortunate,” ho observes, “ that this habit did not exist before, for many good lives would never have won fame. Pope did not say: ‘ The proper study of mankind is personnel.’ Caesar did not ask to have personnel about him who were fat. Neither the Rights of Personnel nor the prayer for all sorts and conditions of personnel would have made much stir; and ‘ only personnel are vile ’ would not even have scanned.” New words and phrases, some of them awkward enough, like the egregious “female manpower,” which are assumed to be required by the war for the most, part will go out of use, no doubt, when that is ended; though it is a disturbing thought that, since the last war, hardly anyone has been able to have an “object”; even when the goal is most abstract it must ■be an “ objective.” The right words will be more often found, however, when circumlocutions cease to take the place of words. Whitehall has been instructed to search for the “ short expressive phrase.” Mr Churchill says that the discipline of setting out the real points concisely will help clearer thinking. It will certainly help the reading—and understanding—of official documents issued by many more places than Whitehall.