SIR,—Mr. G. Edinger's letter (Spectator, June 20) calls for correction.
The English language is still a noble currency in my part of the world, and it is odd to find an Englishman insisting on its devaluation. It was an Indonesian professor at Gadja Mada Univer- sity in Jogjakarta who told me that English was a compulsory second language in Indonesia's schools. In Jogja and Bandoeng several young Indonesians answered in English when I spoke to them in Malay.
Certainly it would be wholly wrong to suggest that is Malaya English is less widely used than in, say, 1945 or 1939, or to believe with Mr. Edinger that 'the mass circulation press has fallen into disrepute cast of Suez.'
At least half of the parliamentary debates in the Federation of Malaya are in English; in Singapore, English is the language of the legislature and is also the administrative language. In both the Federation and Singapore it is taught in Malay and Chinese schools. The paper for which I work, published in English, has by far the largest daily circulation in Malaya, and sales are still rising. At no time in its 113 years of publication has it had a wider audience. Does all this paint a picture of a dying language?
The national languages of Asia should be en- couraged in their growth. In Malaya, my paper tries to make an effective contribution by publishing a daily edition in Romanised Malay, an enterprise which has been cordially welcomed by Malay leaders and the Malay public. But these leaders, notably the Malayan Prime Minister, Tengku Abdul Rahman, are also anxious that the value of English should not be underestimated. It will be some time yet, I fancy, before foreign correspondents who lack a working knowledge of all the tongues of Asia need fear that they cannot get the facts.
While other foreign correspondents 'rush round' South-East Asia, Mr. Edinger 'roves.' His leisurely mode of travel nevertheless appears not to have allowed him sufficient time to get all his facts straight. 'Once for a bet,' he says, 'some Chinese schoolboys sold a Malayan sensation sheet the story of a missing link who had been walking round in the Federation. Some foreign correspondents lapped it up. . . .' For Mr. Edinger's information, it was the Government broadcasting station which broke the story. It was a girl rubber-tapper, not schoolboys, who said she had seen 'hairy beings.' The Federation's museum authorities took the story seriously enough to send out an expedition.—Yours faithfully,
!FF. STEW YEE
Singapore Editor, Straits Times
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