ESPESANTO.

Dominion, Volume 1, Issue 7, 3 October 1907, Page 10

ESPESANTO.

SCENES AT THE CONGRESS. London, August 14! this morning the business sitting#, the Agadaju Kunsidojn, of tlio Esperauto Congress, at Cambridge, began, the meeting did not make a very great show. , After tho hurly-burly n ™ ''""nary arrangements in the Guildhall yesterday, after tho crowd at tho railway station to meet the Majstro ' Dr. Zamenhof, after 'tlio thronged theatre, thero was a very dwindled look about the hall this morning when the Congress met. Indeed, on the way there one.had seen so many people wearing the little' green star on their travels about the' col eges that One would not liava looked for a. very full meeting indoors. Tho day was too temptingly fine, and as you could not approach tho Guildhall. without seeing either the leafy shade of St. Catherine s old rod brick q ? rr- °r pinnacled roof of King s.College chapel high against a blue sky, or the flower-decked little quad ol Christ's, or something equally charming, it .was small wonder that there were truants. However, perhaps the word is not fair. The Congress is as much a mattor of various committees as of united' business meetings. Esperanto affords ail opportunity for people with all kinds of international ideas—the promotion of commerce, education, peace, humanitanamsm generally — to meet ' and carry . their ideas forward. > Esperanto saves tinio in translating speeches. | & THE HEAT OF DEBATE, morning's discussion was" rather at large. A splendid person sat beside Dr. Zamenhof in a Belgian uniform. Ho was tho oiily officially national delegato, havinobeen sent by King Leopold, and the Congress passed a message of grateful salutation to the King as , tho first' head of a Stato to rccognisc tho now language.. Lieutenant Cardinal, the delegate, made a speech himself, and was roundly applauded. Soon afterwards there was a slight scone. A palo Frenchman with a dark curlybeard was speaking, 'and there sud» daily arose loud, abrupt cries from the hall. It is curious to watch a scene of this kind when you cannot catch at all what is being said. If one had any illusions about being able to follow speeches in tho theatre last night (and, after all, formal speeches of welcome and compliment are so much cut to pattern that one knows what to expect and can make it out), • tlioy' went by the board" in the business meeting, when men arose and spoke without tho care for distinctness and slow speech which was neces-. sary in the larger place. So it wag like a. dream to see tho Frenchman violently interrupted; the secretary peacefully interposing, tho palo face of the speaker going: a littlo paler with determination.: It is so,familiar a scene at meetings that it was exactly like tlie enchainment of a dream not to know what it was all about. In point of fact, it was not much. What tliq speaker said vorged upon Socialism, and that was too definit&ly political- for tho Congress. RELAXATION.' In the afternoon the members of the Congress went to the Garden City, and ill the evening they saw a •performance of "Boks kaj Koks," which does not need translating. For the rest of the week the mornings were given to business, the afternoons and evenings to relaxation—a garden party 1 at Nownham, a military tournament by tho Legion of Frontiersmen, an ' excursion to Ely, a ball in national costume. So far the most distinctive pieces of costume to bo seen aro a Turkish fez and a Highlander's kilts. But. costume or none, lq Congress is so thoroughly casting an international spell over the place ;hat you are quite surprised when a policeman understands English. Indeed, it does not seem quite fair to talk it to him, and ho looks as if lie had'thought better of, you than that. At the meeting on Monday night was agreed to despatch a--message .of goodwill to King Edward. Yesterday afternoon the secretary of tho Congress received the following telegram from Lord Knollys:—"I have had tho honour of submitting your telegram to tho King, and I am commanded by His Majesty to thank the members of the Congross for it." SOCIALIST'S CONFESSION OF FAITH. , ; "After Jarrow, Colne Valleyl -Socialism, tlio enemy of the world, has won • again." After this \ dramatic opening, tho Lonodon "Express" proceeds to deal with Mr. V. Grayson, tho new Socialist member for Colne Valley, and remarks:— _ ' Mr. Grayson's principles may be gauged from the following remarkable speech which he made at the Labour Club in Slait-hwaite after tlio declaration of tho poll yesterday: "This epoch-making victory has been one for puro revolutionary Socialism. We have ; not trimmed our sails to get half-hearted voters, and wo 'have proclaimed our. Socialism from every platform. "I shall feel myself the member for the starving child, and I shall bo one to stand for human legislation first. "You have laid tho first storio in tho foundation of a great today. I am looking forward to every constituency in . Yorkshire following the Colne Valley lead. "Wo stand for human equality, sexual equality, for tho abolition .of sex ties. 1 thank the . women for what t-liey have done to keep the Liberal out."

The amount paid in old nKe pensions for the year ended March 31 last was jt:,'111,181, equal to Cs. lOd. per head of population; it was only -Is. Id. in 1900. The amount of accumulated' property owned by old age pensioners is £(34,944; of this .6317,970 represents freehold property.