I agree with the News Chronicle in deploring the drabness
of the wording on the Roll of Honour to be placed in the R.A.F. Chapel in Westminster Abbey. It reads, I gather, "Detailed in this record are those members of the Flying Forces of the Allied Nations who lost their lives as the result of fighting in the Battle of Britain." To criticise is merely to labour the obvious. "Detailed in this record. . ." is, I suppose, Civil Service English ; where outside the Service would " detailed " be used like this ? And in the last line what conceivable purpose do the words "as a result of fighting" serve, except to snake the simple turgid ? Why not "Inscribed in this record are the names of those members of the Air Forces of the Allied Nations who lost their lives for died, or fell] in the Battle of Britain "? There exists a Fine Arts Commission to pass judgement on public works of art of different kinds ; it has recently approved the Roosevelt statue and disapproved the plans for Coventry Cathedral. There would be much to be said for a Literary Advisory Commission to consider public inscriptions and some public documents.
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