MONGREL ENGLISH

Wairarapa Times-Age, 5 April 1940, Page 6

MONGREL ENGLISH

LANGUAGE OF GOVERNMENT DEPARTMENTS. The English humorist, Mr A. P. Herbert, M.P.. in a broadcast talk, criticised the bad language of Government departments and "other lofty places.” | By “bad language.” ho said, ho did not I mean abuse or blasphemy, but language that was badly chosen or employed; rotten, inefficient, ineffective, unsuitable. and even dangerous language. In this war, said Mr Herbert, words mattered more than ever. No one who delighted in the power and precision of Mr Winston Churchill’s broadsides would say that "words don't matter.” And it was no accident that the same statesman, who in speech had scored so many bull's eyes, was fixed as well in the public mind as a rock in purpose and a dynamo in action. "He has shown you that it is not necessary to speak of big things in long, woolly words," Mr Herbert continued. "Some of us knew this before, but to others it has come with a shock of surprise, and that shows how low wo have sunk, in the- world of words. You have learned in recent years to expect any speech or writing about public affairs to be bulging with words like bolsters, and phrases like feather beds —fat Latin words like 'reconditioning' and ‘decontamination’; phrases like 'the coordination of oin- economic resources,' or ’mutual bilateral non-aggression." So. when Mr Chui-chill concludes an address with that simple but electric passage. ‘Man the ships, till the fields, sweep the mines, guard the streets, kiss the girls’ and so on. you sit up and say. ’My hat! all this means something after all. Moreover, this man-under-stands us.'" Mr Herbert said he had no quarrel with the King's Ministers about their own utterances. The Prime Minister. Sir John Simon, and others in their different styles wore masters of concise and lucid statement, and nevei’ wasted a word. Citizens were, however, entitled to suspect the character and competence of any department,' any party, any politician, who stuffed the public mind with woolly, knobbly, half-baked, flabby, or slushy words.