To say that civil servants are, as result of an
internal report by a competent committee, to be taught manners would be most unjust. Civil servants have perfectly good manners. But they are often rather unimaginative manners, as the average letter from a Government department indicates. No doubt Sir Ernest Gowers' Plain English, written for the special benefit of the Civil Service, has improved the literary style of such communications considerably. But the trouble about the communications is that they come so slowly. A business firm will usually reply to a letter by return of post ; a Government department is expeditious if it gets it done in a fortnight. For that reason the dictum: "speed in replying is the kind of courtesy the public yearns for most " is altogether apposite—though its mere enunciation will not ensure that the public will not yearn in vain. When it comes to hints about telephone conversations I feel more doubtful. The public should not be encouraged to ring up Govern- ment offices. Most of the things they want to ask can't be answered off the'reel at the end of the telephone, and to tell them that always annoys them. I should add to the report an admonition to the public : " do not ring up civil servants at their offices " (except, of course, for a little talk about the theatre or the turf).
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