ESPERANTO

Dominion, Volume 10, Issue 3068, 2 May 1917, Page 6

ESPERANTO

LECTURE BY MR. EDMANSON. A lecture on Esperanto was delivered in Esperanto Hall last evening by Mr. W. L. Edmanson. Sir Robert Stout presided over the attendance, whiqh was not very large; Sir Robert Stout said lie thought there should be a wide interest in the question of ■ such a language, becauso peace must come some day. What was wanted was a language that-might bo adopted without the destruction, of our mother tongue. Esperanto was Kiieh a language.

Mr. Edmanson,' after speaking generally upon the need for some universal medium of intercourse between the nations, said that in the town of Eccles, in Lancashire, England, 200 boys and girls were learning this language as one of the regular primary school subjects. Why couW not we do the same? The "aim was to make Esperanto an integeral part of a liberal education. The whole of the rules were comprised in 16 short paragraphs, which could be learned by heart in an hour or two. Given* the essential root words, they had all that/was necessary to treat any subject, however technical and idiomatic, with the fullest certainty of clearness and precision. There were books printed in Esperanto; the New Testament translated from the original text; poetry; the latest jokes; the news of the day; thfl trade circular; the bal-ance-sheet of the counting-house. Absolutely nothing was wanting that was worth having. Shakespeare had been treat-ed by a master hand with most successful results. There was a satisfactory system of coinage based on the metric system, which was so readily annlicitblo- to the present one as to renuire little in the way of assimilation. There was established a bank in Lonflnn roller) tho Check Bank, which was ,the clearing house of the yet small internnlionnl transactions of the movement, and which, could be drawn chenues acceptable in every city of the pi'-'Hscd wo'-M. Tl)n lecturer concluded with an offer of free tuition to any ■"•ho desired to take up the study of Esneranto.-

A vote of f.h.anK to Sir Robert Stout was carried nt tlm conclusion of the l"r>ture. Sir T»ob"rf. Stout, in rotiirninq: Mnjilcs. Ti'Wfl +hf vnniinf nnonlo tn lake Tin the study of thf> lsnsninco. and nroninte n mo'"°niP'>k fint """"iM be nf 'immense service) in establishing the universal brotherhood of man.