ESPERANTO

Wairarapa Times-Age, 19 October 1938, Page 8

ESPERANTO

USE AS AN AUXILIARY LANGUAGE. Travellers are discovering that Esperanto, which they have been tempted to think was only a genial idea, is in actual use as an auxiliary language in many parts of the world/ . In France, where it has been slow to catch on, Esperanto is making strides. The Air Ministry has just admitted Esperanto as an optional language in its courses of instruction. In many Paris railway stations, notices are posted in Esperanto as well as English and other languages. The French postal authorities have just decreed that in all post offices where any employee can speak it, the fact shall be mentioned on a sign over his desk. Esperanto is also now added to the sixty-three languages in which telegrams can be sent from a French post office. The French post office also takes telegrams in Breton, in Basque, in Gascon, and Provencal which are not officially considered as languages. Over and above all this are or course an infinite number of codes which can be used. The foreigner in France need therefore have no fear of his telegram being refused. A French journalist recently made a test by sending a telegram in Swaheli, and much to' his surprise the telegraph employee counted the words without blinking an eye and Said “Three francs fifty, please.” j.