Interest in the Government's transactions in Basic English con- tinues.
Sir Alan Herbert has elicited the fact that the payment of £23,000 to the inventor of Basic English covers the copyright of "the Basic English Standardised Word List and System." The pay- ment itself slipped through last year apparently unnoticed by anyone, the only reference to it being a note of three lines under a Grant-in- Aid to the British Council in the Ministry of Education estimates. That read "The expenditure of the British Council includes a pay- ment of £23,000 to Mr. C. K. Ogden in full and final settlement of all claims by him or the Orthological Institute. In consideration of the payment Mr Ogden has agreed to assign his copyright in Basic English to the Crown." What is in question here is not the merits of Basic English, but whether copyright does or can exist in a list of ordinary English words. No layman would suppose it could, and many lawyers seem to be of the same mind. However, the money has been paid, and that is that. This year's estimates contain an entry, "Basic English Foundation, £18,00o." That, I fancy, will not slip through unnoticed.
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