WORLD PATRIOTISM
[To the Editor of TILE Seeerwroa.]
have read the article by Sir Evelyn Wrench with great interest, but I think he makes a mistake in giving such a long list of the " few reforms " that he advocates, some of which are controversial, and many cut across vested interests or conservative ideas. There is one, however, to which nobody can object, and I think it is far and away the most important—the introduction of a world language —and I would like to put this into the limelight, and con- centrate on it, and not press the others until the campaign for this reform has been fairly launched.
After reading his article I listened in to the debate between Cambridge and Yale, in which the former spoke from London and the latter from New York, and put their respective country's ease before a potential audience of some ten to fifteen millions, and thought of what might happen if one man could address the world in a language that could be understood by ail his listeners.
How to bring it about ? (1) Let the League of Nations appoint a committee to decide on the. language. It should be an invented one, so as to avoid international jealousies, it must be easy to learn, and above all, easy to pronounce, and should have no irregularities, genders for inanimate things, or split infinitives—but all this can be left to the committee. (2) The new language must at once be made a compulsory subject in every elementary school in every nation. (8) Every newspaper must be compelled by law to publish one paragraph in its summary of news, and one paragraph in its foreign news in the new language, and to put the translation, if any, on another page. (4) Every broadcasting station must give at least one item in its news in the new language, which may be followed by a translation.
If this course were adopted I feel confident that within three years half the civilized population of the world would understand the language, and it would be invariably used for any writing, speech, or pronouncement of more than domestic interest.—I am, Sir, &c.,
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