Mr. E. H. Keeling had collected a good many instructive
specimens of "Government English" as basis for his attack on that form of jargon in an adjournment debate last week. Some of the examples tax credulity a little. Has anyone really written "ablution facilities" for " wash-basins " ? But condemnation of " proceed " when all that is meant is " go " is fully justified, and Mr. Glenvil Hall, in replying for the Government had to admit that while you can properly evacuate a place the current habit of speaking of evacuating persons is without defence. " Donate " for " give " must clearly go, and so, though it is not in this category, must the silly and snobbish "medical adviser" for "doctor." " Drunk " is very much more satisfactory than "in an inebriated condition," and so on. Certainly one quoted phrase—" the cessation of house-building operated over five years "—is hopeless ; I decline to believe that a cessation can operate. But I doubt whether the Civil Service sins specially in the misuse of words, though of course it is the obvious target for M.P.s. Some letters I have seen from private business firms would make any average civil servant shudder. All the same I am glad to see that an ex-civil servant, Sir Ernest Gowers, is about to produce a book called Plain Words for the edification of his former colleagues. I should hope it would have a general as well as a purely official circulation.
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