A UNIVERSAL LANGUAGE

Dominion, Volume 12, Issue 56, 30 November 1918, Page 9

A UNIVERSAL LANGUAGE

Sir,—Very much is being written about the League of Nations, and the pros and cons are brought forward, so that its advantages and difficulties are being realised, and tho thoughtful must bo perfectly aware that its attainment is something worth going through great trouble to reajh. In my opinion one of the greatest endeavours should be to adopt a, universal language. If nil the world were to see tho Immense advantage of a universal language it would be easy to appoint one of the best grammarians from cncli nation to meet and adopt one. They could commence with Esperanto as the' groundwork, and improve upon it, or work out a new one. It ifi certain, whatever they do, it will be far from perfect'at first, but in time imperfections will bo improve;! and. great alterations will bo hi.mlc. The- English, of Chaucer was very different to that of tho present ('ay. Having been adopted, tho universal language should then be taught in all tho schools as, part of the curriculum. A business man with such a language oonld correspond with other firms of any nationality, ond as all the boys would be taught at school, i ho clerks could do this also. One could travel all over the world and make himsslf understood. I have dono more than the average amount of travelling, and know the fueling of ft stranger in a strange land. One soon feols that the other nations' sympathies are not oins, but with a universal languagea great deal of this would be altered. One would be speaking more on an equal footing with foreigners, and could[get more in touch with them, and feel, if I may so put it, more at home. Wo often read of the brotherhood of man. I will go as far as to say that wo can never arrive at anything near it until we have a universal language. ■ As the English-speaking peoplo after tho war will be tho predominant race in the world, I am afraid they will bo in--1 clinect to say "Lot Engliwi bo adopted

everywhere." This v.ould be hopelcFS. Other nations have their pride, call it envy, an .idiosyncrasy, or whatever you lite, but they would not like to see their language put in the background. The only chance is to adopt a language made out of all the other languages. Simple, so that anyone could easily learn it, and having learnt it, i.ould travel all over the world and- make himself understood. 'It is easy to find all sorts of objectioi.s and obstacles, but it must all come back to this—that it must: be a wonderful simplification of things-if wo could have a uuivrsal laiiguige. We could talk together, trade together, and understand one another, which we cannot do now, ami the League of Nations should adopt this .is one of it's chief planks.—l am, etc., , ■I.DGAR JONES. Tiruaru, New Zealand.