MAN WHO KNEW EVERY LANGUAGE.

Otago Daily Times, Issue 20642, 14 February 1929, Page 10

MAN WHO KNEW EVERY LANGUAGE.

DR WILLIAMS AND THE HAWAIIANS. (Prom Our Own Correspondent.) LONDON, December 21. A very interesting story is told of the late Dr Harold Williams by a correspondent to a Russian emigre journal. " One day a telephone call reached Harold Williams in his rooms at St. Petersburg, It was a message asking him to help the Ministry of the Interior at the request of M Stolypin himself, since he was the one man in the city who could assist the authorities. The case was explained. A musfc hall impresario had brought two natives of Hawaii, described as ‘ genuine savages,’ to St. Petersburg, where they performed various feats at the Elisseieff Theatre. Through some channel Stolypin was informed that the two Hawaiians had certain grievances against their manager - . Unfortunately they spoke nothing but Hawaiian. Always active, Stolypin insisted that someone must be found to clear up the matter. The Faculty of Oriental Studies was appealed to, but in vain. But nothing was impossible to the police when such was the order of the Minister. They found the one man who spoke Hawaiian in St. Petersburg, and the man was Harold Williams. “He went to the theatre at once; the performance was in full swing, the theatre packed. ' Just as he entered the Hawaiians appeared on the stage. As he passed in front of them he uttered a few words of welcome in their own tongue. With a yell of delight the ‘ savages ’ rushed from the stage and, to the public amazement, clutched at the stranger who spoke Hawaiian. All their grievances were promptly settled to their complete satisfaction.”