LITIGANTS STARTLED

Evening Star, Issue 25956, 22 November 1946, Page 7

LITIGANTS STARTLED

CHAIRMAN'S FORMIDABLE LANGUAGE LORRY DRIVER QUOTES LATIN IN COURT (From E. G. Webber, N.Z.P.A. Special Correspondent.) (Rec. noon.) LONDON, Nov. 21. Major Aubrey Morris, chairman of the Wellesden Rent Tribunal, has a reputation of using formidable language in unexpected places. This week lie startled litigants appearing before his court by condemning “ alien elements who buy property, yclept furnished houses, and exploit the lack of accommodation,” and went on to describe these aliens as “ zeugmatic owners in zoot suits exercising masochistic and vulpine cupidity for nauseous gain.” Most newspapers headlined the major’s comments, adding postscripts for the benefit of readers to explain the meaning of zeumatic, zoot suits, and masochistic. One London evening newspaper, however, took the major severely to task—not on the ground of the strain his language imposed upon reporters and the public, but because as chairman of a judical tribunal from which there wa* no right of appeal he spread the “ detestable falsehood ” that a man’s race may prejudice his judicial rights in a British court. In another court an ex-guardsman lorry driver charged with the theft of 15s, startled the presiding magistrate by quoting a Latin tag from the dock. “ The efficiency and zeal of the police are to be highly commended,” said the prisoner, “ sic dictum lacrimans.” The magistrate in this case was not as accomplished in the use of tongues as Major Morris, and demanded a translation, which the prisoner obligingly provided—“ Thus spake he, weeping.” [Zeugma: A figure by which a single word is made to refer to two or more words in the sentence, especially when applying in sense to only one of them, or applying to them in different senses. (Example: She came in a flood of tears and a bath chair.)—O.E.D. Masochism: .A form of perversion which delights in cruel treatment.]