MUCH ADO ABOUR JARGON

Grey River Argus, 19 April 1948, Page 2

MUCH ADO ABOUR JARGON

Mr W. G. Hall, Financial Secretaij to tl/e, Treasury, after a discussion in the House of Commons on cliches used by civil servants said, that a new textbook, “Plain Words,” was to be published shortly for use by civil servants. The discussion was started by Mr E. H. Keeling (Conservative, Twickenham), who complained that a large number of the words and phrases used in the Governmen’s economic survey for 1948 were not understood by most people. Must everything he “In short supply?” he asked. Could it not be “scarce?” He argued that the Government would be better understood if they saia "use” instead of “implement,” “give” instead of “donate”, and “go” instead of “proceed.” Mr Keeling recalled that in June 1940, Mr Churchill had not said, “The position in regard to France is extremely serious.” He said, “The news from France is very bad.” Could not people work to-gether? Must they always “co-operate” in a. “co-ordinat-ed” manner. Ministers would say that an “operation” was “one of considerable magnitude” because that was more likely to be accepted as an excuse than if they said, “It’s a. big job.” Ministers were always giving things “active consideration.” Could they be considered otherwise actively?’ Did Ministers ruminate like cows? “I am told by a civil servant that thev hase lost the file but are trying to find it,” he said. “There was a police report which said: ‘He was conveyed to his place of residence in an intoxicated condition.” How much simpler it would have been if it had just read: ‘He was taken home drunk.’ ”