ESPERANTO NOTES.

Grey River Argus, 27 June 1922, Page 3

ESPERANTO NOTES.

(By “ Labor”) Colonel House, a member of the American I’ei.ce Delegation, says there must be an international language- for use in diplomacy and commerce. In an interview reported in the “Public Ledger” he said — “There are few things more necessary to a better understanding between i nations than a universal language to be | used in diplomacy and commerce. Everyone familiar with the V ersailles Conference knows how much Orlando, the Italian Prime Minister was handicapped because of his inability to communicate with his English and American colleagues except through an interpreter. At Washington it is the French who have suffered. There was no one among the heads of their delegation who could speak English except the genial and scholarly Jusserand. What they lost in prestige because of this is a matter for speculation, but that it was great no one at the conference will deny. These two conferences have been successful, so far as the machinery of language is concerned, by chance. Not only international conferences, said Colonel House, but also commerce, Science and literature, and, in fact, the peoples of the world need a coinmen tongue. The world has a choice between Esperanto and mediaeval Latin. The “American Esperantist’’ from which the report is taken, says: “Ancient Latin was so difficult that its own people : bandoned it. mediaeval Latin was so difficult that the lay world definitely threw it overboard, and Esperanto is so easy that the many will and can and arc learning it, while Latin of any sort is but a ghost of th-: drear p:'st, to which there is no rvtu;;:. !'<..■ • ward, not back—Suda Kr.n-o. ’’ By resolution of the D'-puty chamber and the Senate of the Brazilian Re public, the Brazilian Esperanto League has been declared a so. iety of public utility. T his was endorsed by Dr Kpitavio I’essoa', President of Brtizii, who promised to help the propaganda of Esperanto, and principally to its instruction in the public schools. The question of Esperanto in the schools is increasingly being discussed among educationalists. An international conference, of teachers, together with a special committee, appointed at the last Esperanto World’s Conference heid iu Prague, was held in the Palace of the League of Nations, Geneva, from April IS to April 21. This conference was to go fully into the question of Esperanto insfriietion in schools, co] lect and examine the experiences of Esperanto teachers in various countiies, • nd pronounce findings on the results. Besides preparing a report for the 14tli \\ orld’s. Congress, to be held in Finl: nd. during Augud, tiu* above eonferenc' will prepare data to jdace before the League of Nations, which body will discuss the question of the advisabi lity of the introduction of Esperanto into the schools of the world. The League of Nations, on its own initiative, lias made exh' ustive inquiries from all countries of the world, and, in its third Assembly, to be held shortly in Genova, the question of the introduction of Esperanto into all schools will be put to a vote of the delegates. “Sennacieea Revuo” whose motto is —Pro’etarians of all lands, unite, say<: Blind are those wb.o, in tht' propag nda of Esperanto, can only sec economv and profit for “Big Business,” an 1 not an instrument for the liberation of mankind from nationalism, militarism and slavery. — “Auckland Labour The writings of Francisco Ferrer are being tr nslrited into Esperanto and artbeing published by the Esperanto pa per “Novaj Tempo.’” (“New Times”). I hope to publish some extracts later on. Ferrer, it will be remembered wa i one of the pioneers of proletarian educadion. He b-'r-aine too dangerous fo r the existing order, and, after a trunni-ed-np charge* ami burlesque trial, wns f. ken out ami shot by the Spanish authorities on October 13, 1909.