1929-10-03 — Page 7

THURSDAY, OCTOBER 3, 1929.

ENGLISH AND SCIENCE

Language as a Means of Communication

UNITY OF SPEECH ·

The Risks of Americanigation in England

[By Sir Robert Donald]

THE CHINA MAIL,

ENGINEER FINED

TAKING THE LAW INTO HIS

OWN HANDS

BICSHA PULLERS EULOGISED

The cuqu against T. Gibbison, an engineor, charged with the hassult of la ricsha.coolto and maliciously dam- eging the cushion and side screens of the ricahd, was concluded yesterday afternoon at the Kowloon Magistracy before Mr. T. E. Whyte-Smith.

His Worship convicted and fined de-

Evidence was given by Sub-Insp.) Catonto the effect that defondant his own hands and that if he had had had said that he would take laws into a box of matches he would set fire to the whole thing.

A Bad Example Addressing the defendant, his Wor- ship said:

Science has saved the unity of the English language and is bringing about uniformity of our speech. With the means of com-fendant $15, and also ordered him to munication between peoples which existed in the sixteenth and rideation to the coolie. séventeenth centuries, the English language might have probably shured the fate which his overtaken Nordic, Teutonic, Slavonic, and other languages Scandinavian speech has been split into three nutional languages, German has off-shoots, in Dutch and Flemish there are half a dozen Slav, tongues all growths from the same roots. There was a risk of the disintegration of English-of an American and Canadian language, and of an Australian variant: at a confer ence of representatives from England, the Dominions, and the United States, interpreters would have been necessary. That risk has gone; the steamship and the telegraph checked it; the telephone, the tulking film and radio have saved us from the danger,

AMERICAN INFLUENCE

It is a very unfortunate thing. It Such behaviour, I think, is likely to strikes me as being bad behavidur. give these ricata coolies a bad impres- actions such as this, you let down the alon of the foreign community. By foreign community.

+

"These ricsha coolies are, to my nind, a very fine set of fellows, inw. abiding and good natured, and none of them has ever been before me for a dishonest offence, but only for trivial traffic offenees; and they should be: | properly treated."

.Riesha Soldiers .Ilia Worship went on to say that tuste accents and peculiarities of some time ago, an Army Major re- pronunciation. Reciprocal radio ser-narked to his Worship that he would vices. hatween England and Ameri-like nothing better than to be able to ca will become quite a common-train a battalion of riesha coolics and place within a few years, and not atak regiment of them. His Wor all abnormal between England, the ship considered that as very high Far East, and the Antipodes.

compliment, and most people would share the opinion that they were a good

The trend towards differentiath n f telephone and the rafcrophone accen- was becoming marked. An Ameri- can language was growing up. Al- though new words and phrases will continue to be invented in different English-speaking countries and in process of time, by right of usage, will be incorporated in the language, there is no longer a danger that the United States will develop a langu- nge of its own. The delightful Mr. H. L. Mencken, one of the masters of modern English, will not be able to bring out new editions of his "American Language" in the hope that it will be used as a text-book

in American schools.

"Talkie Tégeking Diversity in the written word is Jess marked thun variations in pro- nunciation. Now the coming of the talking film will lead to uniformity in pronunciation and the acceptance of recognized standards which will be known wherever the English language is spoken. In this early stage, the English drawl and man- nerisms in "talkies" are distasteful to the American public; the harsh, rasping American intonation and alang are painful for English listen- er These extesses will be modifi-

Finding a Style

set of fellows."

With the object of attaining cor-

'Bus Competition rectuoss in speech and uniformity,

-His Worship also remarked that they the British Broadcasting Corpora- had a pretty hard life. In the last five tion in 1926 called in the aid of a cars the competition of the 'bus ser committee of experts on the langu for them to earn a living, but they will vicos, must have made it very difficult age, consisting of Bridges, the Poet Laureate (chair-cumshaw. "It is very unfortunate Mr. Robert work hard to get an extra 10 cents maa Sir Johnston Forbes-Robert- that the defendant had treated the son, Mr. George Bernard Shaw, Mr.riesha coolie in this way," Logan Pearsall Smith, the author

SHADOWS BEFORE.

COMING EVENTS ANNOUNCED IN "CHINA MAIL”

Social Functiona

NEW ADVERTISEMENTS.

NOTICE,

.un

To-day Dinner Dancea at Hong Kong Hotel and Peninsula Hotel,THE MEMBERS of the Compra- 8,80 p.m.

dore Association, will hold an "At Home"

the Chinese National Day, the 10th Instant, from 10a.m. to 1 p.m., 2nd Floor, China Building.

To-day-Dinner Dance at Repulso Bay Hotel 8.30 p.m. Hall, whi: drive, 8.50 p.m.

To-day At St. John's Cathedral

Entertainments To-day Queen's Theatre; "Tide of Empire."

Theatre:

To-day World "Ancient Mariner," (Continuous performance from 1.15 to 11.15 p.m.).

Theatre:

Po-day Star- "A Sailors Sweetheart."

To-day Majestic Theatre; "Fleetwing,"

To-day-At Star Theatre, Torcat's Roosters, at 5.30 and 9.20. p.m. Lea Theatre, 9 p.m..

Oct. 21--Nelson Day Concert at

Home Mall To-morrow-Inward from ica and ports ("Mishima Maru").

Lammerts'. Auction To-morrow-At Sales Room; Dud- dell Street postage stampa, 5.15 p.m.

ed.

All friends are cordially invit

IN OTHER PLACES.

CHRONICLES FROM JAPAN TQ| JAVÄ

Dr. Annabelle Flint hás return- spent at Unzen and other Japanese ed to Shanghai from a holiday

resorts.

Mr. M. Shigemitsu, H. 1. J. M. Consul-General, Shanghai, has re- Areer-covered from his indisposition and

is back at work.

Sports To-morrow-V.R.C. night fete, 9.15 p.m.

Oct. 5-Ladies Hockey: Chub match, King's Park, 4.30 p.m. Meetings

known as "Punjab," formerly Direc

Capt. G. W. Clark, commonly

tor of Criminal Investigation, S.M.P., has returned to Shanghai.

The Nanking Municipality has Inter-made an order that the police of that city must discover all opium smokers and traffickers before Oc- To-day-Monthly meeting of Re-tober 10 and arrest them, Irrespec- ferees' Association, Council önce, tive of their positions in life. 5.50 p.m.

Oct. 7-Annual general meeting of the Philharmonic Society, at the Cathedral Hall, 5.30 p.m.

Miscellaneous Club, Impromptu Concert, 9 p.m.

To-day--At Civil Service Cricket

te Relation to Schools, at Univer- To-morrow-Lecture on "Art and

sity Assembly Room, 8.30 p.m.

the

Fourteen membera Japanese Diet are expected in Shanghai on October 8 from north- and central China. The Wai- chlaopu has instructed the Klangsu and Chekiang provincial authorities "to accord them proper protection.""

Oct. 5-Interport Lawn Bowls Shanghai is busily engaged in mak- The Chinese papers say that the

Dinner at Peninsula Hotel.

Bureau of Works for Greater)

Oct. 5-At Police Recreationing new roads and ropairing old thoroughfares in Chinese territory. Club, Happy Valley, al fresco con- A number of Chapel roads are cert, 8.30 p.m.

being, Inid out or repaired.

ROUND THE CINEMAS

"TIDE OF EMPIRE" AT THE QUEEN'S

of a number of books on English;; Professor Daniel Jones, and Pro-DANGEROUS POLICY' fessor A. Lloyd James. The re- commendations which the Committee have made from time to time have

COMPLAINANT ABSENT IN

According to the "Sinwanpao," been issued.

LARCENY CASE

the Asiatic Petroleum Company has The adoption of one style of pronunciation must be a slow

got permission from the Ministry PROSECUTION FAILED

of Agriculture and Mines to build! which the rightness or wrongness of process, as there is no standard by j

some big oil tanks, godowns and When two Chinese were charged at pronunciation can be measured., the Kowloon Magistracy yesterday

wharves at Kaochinosha, Pootung, MAD CHASE FOR GOLD You find men like Lord Balfour and afternoon before Mr. T. S. Whyte

60 as to facilitate the unloading and Earl Grey-to whom words have Smith with the alereny of $45 from the modern history as a background and for such work, says the "Sinvan- Taking the most drámatic chapter in abroad. This locality is so suitable storage of petroleum arriving from ed. English actors with a good ar- ask the Ministry of Agricul

person of another Chinese and also depleting the overthrow of an ancient been referred-differing in opinion) with offering a bribe of $5 to the de- civilisation, by the onrushing hordes Pao," that other oil companies will Ders of the Committee. Closer inter-Hall, for the defence, applied for the monster task accomplished in Alming ture and Mines for permission to manication will lead to common that the complainant was not present. epochal story of the "Days of '40," course and the same system of com-discharge of the men on the groundTide of Empire," Peter B. Kyne's put oil tanks and wharves there. Bige. The B.B.C., for instance, is He said that to proceed with the ease which will be at the Queen's Theatre adopting in its official journals the was a dangerous policy. It could very from to-day to Saturday. The picture Mr. Emil S. Fischer, of Tientsin, American "vaudeville" in place of well be argued that the detective had also tells a glorious love theme inter- a former honorary Librarian of the "variety" in reference to entertain furtherinore there was nothing to prove tenta Argentats in their mad chase just returned from a visit to the a grudge against the defendants, and twined with the struggles of the Call- Royal Asiatic Society Bhanghai, has that the men had actually stolen $45.

The case was accordingly withdrawn, for gold in the Sierra mountains, desecrated Tung Ling, or the The drama opens with the California Eastern Imperial Mausoleums, and of the Spanish dons, who lived in he has very generously consented tranquil, grandeur before the dis- to include Shanghai in his itinerary covery of gol. Then, at Sutters Mill, to Yokohama in order to give R.A.S. John Marshall discovers, gold, and members and friends, as well as the across the plains, across the Isthmus and around the Horn, gold-seeking hearing his most interesting story general public, an opportunity of hordes of barbarians pour in, hardy of his personal observations in the pioneers who respect no property North Eastern Sacred Reserve." rights, hurling the Spanish owners from their lands in the mad race for the gleaming metal

ments.

ticulation and no listinguishable. Recent are in great demand in American film studios and are talking themselves into for- tongs in Hollywood---while for- eign actors, who made fortunes in silent screen plays in America, are out.of work. American "stars" are taking lessons in pure English Within a few yean there will be no marked difference between the lan- guage in the "alkies" throughout the English-speaking world. Artis- tle instinets and commercial inter-It has affiliations in the United ests combine to bring about a com- mon film language..

Uniformity

In the meantime, wireless tele- phony. coming into *constant uze - between the *territorial divisions of the English-speak- Ing world. will hasten uni- formity. British and American

merchants and brokers, in order to understand each other during the golden minutes of their conversa- tinas-over distances of three to nix thousand milles, must approximate to the same phraseology and the samo pronunciation. Conversation bitween England and any part of Cannda and the United States his ceased to be a novelty and is an qvery-day occurrence.

One of the objects of the Society community of action between Eag for Pure English is to bring about lish and American authorities.

It has done much in that direction.

States, and experts and professors pay visita Or take up posts at American universities so that the Bama scientific methods of invosti- gation and the same usage are adopt-

MOSQUITO PEST

FAILURE TO ABATE THE NUISANCE

FINED $25

Before Mr. T. S. Whyte-Smith at ed and recognized on both sides of the Kowloon Magistracy yesterday, the the Atlantic. American universi-secretary of the Yue Ho Hing firm ties give far more attention to the was fined $25 for failing to abate a teaching of English and

moaquite nuisance, in pools of water on oratory than we do in England. It.is inter-

the firm's pronlses. esting to note that some of the lead-out against the Hong Yick Co, and A similar summons was also taken

America-such as Professor Otto Ing authorities on the tangitage in they were similarly fined $25. Jespersen and Mr. H. L: Mencken, are men whose mother tongue was not English.

The S.P.E.. Is doing an immense. amount of missionary work on mo- dest lines. Its "tracts" are not intended to be text-books. They are intended to be informative and

WATER SUPPLY

. INCREASE IN MAINLAND

RESERVOIR STORAGE

H.K. WEEK'S CONSUMPTION

It is expected that Dr. Notobe The pioneers were the vanguard of will be voted Chairman of the Pan- modern progress in the West and out Pacific Conference to be held in of their invasion came the building of Kyoto from October 28 till Novem the railroads and the rise of great ber 9, says the "Japan Chronicle." tic days of the dons. cities, built on the ashes of the roman The Conference will be attended by

Renee Adoree plays the fiery Spanish about 200 delegates, and the Miyako Josephita, and George Duryea, the Hotel has been chosen as the meet- Irish D'Arcy, William Collier, junr., ising, place. The assembly is called seen in the role of Rimauldo, the weak every two years, and its aim is to ling brother?-George: Fawcett plays, discuss Pacific problems. Each in- Oon Jose, fast of the old Spanish dividual or country represented at

• grandees, a dominant but pathetic the meeting is called upon to bear figure,

his or its expenses. Japan's cost

A SAILOR'S SWEETHEART"?

Attractive. Film Showing: at the "Star"

of participation is estimated at Yen 100,000, which will be raised by donations :-

Radio is another factor making for unity of the language. Here the primary consideration is for correct penetrative to clear - up doubtful The total atrage in the island reser ness and uniformity of pronuncia-points, to maintain continuity of voirs on the morning of Sept. 80, tion within national areas Great development, and while welcoming amounted to 1,884.24 million gallons,

The Chinese papers say that the Britain, the United States, Canada newcomers in the language to cling showing an increase of 3.29 million

but we cannot overlook the fact to the precious heritage of the past. gallons during the past week: the Fazenda, in "A Sailors Sweetheart," with the C.M.3. "Hisinkung," in the Myrna Loy now in support of Louise families of those who went down that radio Is International. An- Mr. Robert Bridgea, the octo- amount collected from streams being the Warner Bros. production at the collision of the Shantung Promon- nouncers at broadcasting stations genarian poet laureate, who is the tion amounted to 57.20 million gallona. Mont. She was educated at the West Tatsuno Marn," estimate the tatal 60.43 millions. The week's consump Star Theatre is a native of Helens, tory on July 21 with N.Y.K.S. must speak in a style which is under-life and soul of the SP.E., polnhs out stood by the greatest body of it should grow out of touch with reservoirs on the same date amounted St. Denis in Los Angeles, after which ing to this estimate, was valued at that there is danger lest our speech. The total storage in the mainland intensive study of dancing under Huth $2,000,000 The "Heinkong," accord

Inke School for Girls, later making an losses suffered at not less than ers throughout the world. We have a moral responsibility, towards the literature and losing, as it were, its to. 513.80 million gallons, showing an she was engaged as premisté danseuse Tis. 200,000: the daily losses to the foreigners who do us the compliment capital and living from hand to increase of 12.48 million gallons during in several of the Grauman prologues at company through the loss of the of learning our language. Mr. mouth, fall from its nobility and the past week

the Egyptian Theatre in Hollywood.?! -Robert Brillges, the Poet Laureate, gradually dissociate itself from The week's consumption amounted to It was here that Heurg Watman, vessel, Tis. 1,400; losaca of cargo, Engish, writing in 1925, which is a legacy, so that to an average Briton 1,81 Tullion allons supplied to ship and introduced her to Mrs. Rudolphs been elected to go to Nanking Chairman of the Society for Purs apparent continuity with its great 20.09 million gallons (not including the photographer, became, interested $400,000; and the remainder for the lives lost. Two representatives long way back in the development our Elizabethan literature would ping through Laichikok)

| Valentino, who gave her á féáture role of broadcasting, foregaw that this come to be as much an obsolete lan- and streams during the week is 48.88 lowed by an equally good part in ment to take up their claim for in- The yield from the Shing Mun River in "What Price Beauty." This was fol to appeal to the National Govern marvellous invention would encour

guage, as Middle English le to us million gallons. age stricter standardization, and

"Pretty Ladies," directed by Monta i demuity from the Japanese com- Deli lead to "a clearer and more distinct articulation of syllables.

Nicely and clearness are all the more necessary in telephonte conver sation and in broadcasting as the

MAKE YOUR OWN SODA

WATER

| now, or as Homer or Aeschylus is to j

a modern Greek TM* STORCATS ROOSTERS

The Society takes up definite pro

blems and invites correspondence PERFORMANCES COMMENCE and suggestions from all students of THIS AFTERNOON the language. Mr. Bridges, whose

vigour of mind seems to increase The Torcate Roosters, after a high- with his years, is the most courage-ly successful reason at Canton, return ous reformer in the group. His to the Colony during the week and will own contributions to the literatura play here for a few days before leaving of the Society are Important, and his for. Indo-China on an extended tour, colleagues owe much to him for his The Company of Roosters, which per- "Inspiring enthusiam. The official ormed to crowded Houses at the headquarters of the SPE. is the the Star Theatre the venue of their Clarendon Press, Oxford Together return stay

There will

with

States,

Queen's Theatre last month will make

erators in the United | **** nales are work! quietly

o per

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