ESPERANTO CONGRESS.

Poverty Bay Herald, Volume XLIX, Issue 16113, 30 April 1923, Page 6

ESPERANTO CONGRESS.

Tho Gisborno delegates to the Ails

tralasian Esperanto Congress, hold at Sydney, have returned to Gisborne. Tho Sydney papers devoted a good deal of space to the conference, indicating the growing importance of tho international language. One of the chief claims made for the

universal adoption of Esperanto was voiced by the president, Mr. C. W. Ballard, who declared that if tho ideal of the Esperantist# were realised, it would prevent misunderstanding, and thus eventually eliminate u’ars. Adherents of the system, he stated, did not aim to make Esperanto tho sole language of communication between nations, but to make it an auxiliary language. Keen appreciation of the practical value of the auxiliary language was expressed by Dr. Scott Fletcher, principal of Wesley College (Sydney University), at the opening* of the congress. Tho world was at tho dawn of a wonderful era, and the senses of students should tingle at the glorious prospects ahead. He believed that in Esperanto, they had not an artificial language, but a living tongue, which had been making way for a generation. Its success was instanced by tho fact that at tho great international conference delegates of over forty nations had met together, and had, for a week at a time, conducted their business and social activities entirely in Esperanto. School tcaclVftrs, education departmental officers, and commercial travel- | lors were among those who endorsed the | value of Esperanto, the Lord Mayor of Sydney also l commenting that lie boI lieved that Esperanto would be a boon Jto tho trade expansionists. It was reported to the congress that there are over 5000 students of tho universal , language in Australia and New Zealand