ESPERANTO.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXII, Issue 19194, 7 December 1925, Page 7

ESPERANTO.

Sir,—May I trespass upon your space to point out one aspect of the historical event just enacted in London. We are informed that tho King's message was delivered to the assembled plenipotentiaries in French, the French delegates spoke their own language, and the Germans spoke in German: Mr. Stanley Baldwin being the only one to use English. Presumably the delegates of the smaller nations spoke in French, though we are not definitely informed in the cabled report. It is hardly likely that all present understood all the speeches in the language in which they were delivered, so that, with ail the expressions of goodwill and friendship, there must have been a, certain amount of restraint owing to the language barrier, even in a gathering of such well-educated notabilities. I would like to say that I think a splendid opportunity for the use of the international language Esperanto (already approved of by the League of Nations itself) was allowed to pass by. Nevertheless, the time must come eventually when its use will be sanctioned by 'ail the Great Powers, and then ail will be ou an equal footing, and none will feel humiliated at haying to express himself in a language foreign to his tongue, with the constant fear of ridicule from those hearers to whom it is their native speech. ,J. Arnold Hodges, F.B.E.A. (Lond.) Pukekohe.