A SPECTATOR'S NOTEBOOK
THE importance of the arrival of M. Rene Massigli in London may be very great indeed. Attention has rather been focussed on the fact that M. Massigli's last post was that of French Ambassador at Ankara. There are two facts more important. One is that M. Massigli has held a much higher post, that of permanent head of the Foreign Office, being opposite number to Sir Alexander Cadogan here. The other is that he is M. Massigli—in other words, that he is a personality who in point both of ability and of character inspires unqualified confidence. He has been a part, usually as secretary, of the French delegation to almost every inter- national conference from 1919 onwards, like the Arms Con- ference at Washington in 1921-2, the Genoa Conference in 1922, the Lausanne Conference in 1923 and many others. He can supply just the political and administrative experience which both General de Gaulle's organisation in London and General Giraud's in North Africa admittedly lack ; the question indeed is in which place he can be the more useful, and the answer may well be in both places. Liaison can only be kept effectively by fairly frequent journeys between London and Algiers, and no one is better qualified to fill that arduous role than M. Massigli. When the time comes for post- war discussions, M. Massigli, again like Sir Alexander Cadogan, will be able to speak from many years' experience as head of the League of Nations' Section of his country's Foreign Office.
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A variety of factors—one of them the desirability of creating an international force of some kind for swift action against an aggressor —give new immediacy to the question of an international language. Englishmen can discuss impartially the adoption of almost any language, national or artificial—except English. If that is to come under discussion, the discussion must be left largely to other people. But if I do not discuss, I may at least quote—from a short but extremely interesting article by Professor Wilhelm Keilhau, of Oslo, in the first issue of the new Norwegian review, The Norseman. Professor Keilhau gives cogent reasons for preferring a living to a manufactured language, and among living languages English, and he makes the definite proposal that the Allied (non-British) Govern- ments in London adopt English as the inter-democratic language, and undertake to make it after the peace a compulsory language in their elementary schools and to promote familiarity with it in a variety of ways. At the same time he would have such governmental action reinforced by the formation of a voluntary World-Language Union, which among other things would favour the publication in every participating country of at least one daily paper and one periodical in English. All this is very interesting. So is Professor Keilhau's incidental remark that, great as the advantages of Latin as a lingua franca in the Middle Ages was, it was the language of one sex only ; with few exceptions (nuns among them) women did not speak it. That, I suppose, is true.
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At the luncheon at which the birth of the Norseman was cele- brated, under the chairmanship of its editor, Dr. Jacob Worm-. Muller, in the presence of King Haakon, President Benes, and other distinguished guests, I acquired from a neighbour at table one bit of information which, though relating to the past, throws a stimulating light on the spirit of Norway. When Germany attacked the country two rival instructions were sent out to the captains of Norwegian ships at sea. King Haakon's government
told them to follow all instructions given them through the B.B.C. the Quisling government told them to make at once for Gem or Italian ports. The number of ships at sea, said my informa speaking from memory, was 1,107. The number that follow B.B.C. instructions was 1,107 ; the number that made for Ger or Italian ports was o. * * * *
Here is an anecdote which I think I may without improprie pass on. A High Court Judge returning recently from circuit v, travelling alone in a 1st class carriage that had been reserved fo him. Not desiring to monopolise it, he told the guard to offer place to anyone who wanted one. In a few moments there cam along an officer dressed half as soldier, half as sailor, with strange nondescript baggage, all of which he explained by mentioning tha he had just been released from a concentration camp in Nor Africa ; he had been the commander of a British destroyer that w sunk. " Before that," he went on, " I was on the ' Janus.' W used to get The Spectator—I don't know whether you ever see (the Judge replied that he did)—and we used always to read tha column by a man who calls himself Janus ; we thought of writing t ask him if he would become president of our comforts fund." The Judge observed that, knowing Janus personally, he was quite sure
that such a request would be welcomed. It certainly would have been.
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It comes as something of a shock to the thousands to whom the Lake of Geneva has long been a symbol of peace not only politi- cally but through the charm of its placid surface and the mirrored hills (not that Lake Leman is always like that) to realise that half its shore, or little less, is in belligerent hands. All that was once French is now German. Seaplane works are being established not far from Evian, and citizens of Geneva are not allowed to use telescopes lest their vision should range too far and descry some- thing not meant to be descried. The Germans, of course, cannot impose that veto, but the Swiss authorities think it politic to be, if anything, over-scrupulous about neutrality.
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So Mr. E. J. Flynn, whom President Roosevelt had nominated as American Minister to Australia, has withdrawn, in view of the opposition voiced in the Senate and elsewhere. The feeling is general that the President had made an ill-advised choice, and 3 mot that comes from inside the American Cabinet has reached this country. "God," said a certain Minister, " has led the Presi- dent by the hand for a long while, but even God gets tired some- times."
* * * * The memories, both of college porters and hotel porters, are pro- verbial, but they occasionally astonish one none the less. I spent last week-end at Cambridge, and had a word with a porter, whose face I vaguely remembered, at my old college. He looked at me and observed, "You used to ' keep ' in C, Second Court." I did ; but it is nearly 38 years (I regret to say) since I vacated my rooms there, and I have never had any connexion with them since.
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"Things are in the saddle and they ride mankind" is from Emerson's Ode to Charming—as I am grateful to many correspon-
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