Leo XIII. and the Language Movement.

New Zealand Tablet, Volume XXX, Issue 15, 10 April 1902, Page 2

Leo XIII. and the Language Movement.

Every people at all worthy of the name has an unquenchable love for its own language and has as much a natural right to the use of it as to the ownership of its own soil. The attempt, by the mere brute force of coercive legislation, to root out in any country the native language of the people can never, in the case of any high-spirited race meet with any permanent success and the only effect of such repression is to leave a legacy of hatred and bitter memories that will never die. Yet this form of repression is a method very commonly adopted by the conqueror to the conquered, by the very strong to the very weak among- the nations. It has been adopted in Schleswig-Holstein where Germany, to whom the territory now belongs, has placed the Danish language under a ban though the inhabitants are almost entirely Danes. It has been adopted in Alsace-Lorraine by the same Power where, since its annexation after 1870, the use of French has been prohibited although the inhabitants are largely French and although owing to the position of the province on the border between the two countries the use of French is almost absolutely necessary for trade purpose-,. Its adoption is also proposed in the Philippine^, in regard to which a United States Commission have recently recommended a scheme of government which provides for the absolute extermination of the language of the Tajals and Disajas. But perhaps the most pathetic example of this most hateful form of coercion is to be found in gallant little Poland, a countiy which is in so many respects the exact counterpart of unhappy Ireland. In Austrian Poland the inhabitants are fail ly treated and are allowed the free use of their native tongue. But in Russian Poland and German Poland the Polish language is placed under an absolute ban in the schools, churches, and Courts of Justice. In German Poland the children in the schools are compelled to learn German and strictly forbidden to learn or speak Polish, and as the children thus know no language but German and in many cases the parents can speak nothing but Polish, it often happens that it is actually impossible for parent and child to talk to each other, so that they can know as little of each other's wants and feelings and jojs and sorrows as if they had been born dumb. Little wonder that th-i people resent s'ich a cruel law and that there are such frequent references in our cables to serious outbreaks and riots in German Poland. Of course it is a matter in which the Church cannot very well directly inteifere, and the Pope has intimated that he considers it his duty to abstain from giving a formal decision on the controversies that have arisen over the matter. At the same time the Holy Father has shown very unmistakably on which side his sympathies lie, and has done what he can to help the cause of patriotism and freedom. In a letter published in the Vaterland of Vienna and addressed to the Bishops of Bohemia and Moravia, his Holiness writes thus :—: — 'One cause ol d-sunion, especially in Bohemia, may be traced to the languages which the inhabitants speak according to }heir different descent ; for the inclination to love and protect the tongue inherited from his forbears is implanted by nature in

every human being. We adhere to our determination to abstain from a decision of the controversies that have arisen * * over the matter. Surely the protection of the mother-tongue, so long as it does not exceed certain bounds, deserves no censure; provided always that the common interests of the state do not suffer. It is the duty of the rulers to preserve intact individual rights, in so far as it can be done without trenching on the welfare of the commonwealth. As for us, it is our duty to provide that religion be not jeopardised through such language controversies, for the faith is the chief good of the spirit and the source of all other goods.'