1935-12-04 — Page 18

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THE HONGKONG TELEGRAPH. WEDNESDAY, DECEMBER

"BEDFORD"

A TOUGH,

POPULAR

TRUCK

and a Service worthy of it f VERY month big shipments of Bedford trucks leave Eng land for every part of the world, And the rising export figures and many hundreds of enthusiastic letters from Bedford owners all over the world have shown that

Α

4, 1935,

Hongkong has its Oxford “accent". You hear it in the Club, the Hotels, the cinemas and your office. Most people who don't use it are irritated by it—yet it is not made the butt of half as many jokes an tho Scottish, the Yorkshire, the Cockney and the Australian accents. Now it's got itself into the London newspapers because the Post Office there recently stipulated that six hundred new ladies required a London telephona oporators should not have Oxford 'accents.

Rose Macaulay, in the following_article, discussos' the number, nature and variety of English acconta-all heard, in Hong- kong-and concludes that the so-called Oxford accent is still a mystory,

VERY odd stipulation would appear to have been made by the British Post Office regard ing six hundred now young ladies required as London telephone operators: they are not to have Oxford accents.

Odd, because, on the fact of it, it seems unlikely that many aspirants for this career should speak with this tongue (what-

Movement. (By the way, the It would be Interesting to excessive, the almost bigoted, know which, if any, of these loyalty of the makers of this manners of speech the Past dictionary to the University. Office has in mind in repudiating (Why Oxford whose Press publishes it, is ad- Oxford accents. mirable; it includes Oxford, de rather than Cambridge might fining it accurately as an English be asked, when the two Univer- University, and omits Cam- sities have always spoken in the bridge, which, however, with same way, being recruited from Cambridge blue and all, is the same schools and homes. admitted, probably in response But Oxford scems always to be

And how charming it is, ff one has occasion to accost a London policeman, to be ans- wered in the speech of Lanca- shire, Belfast, Scotlund, or with. a

rich Gloucestershire burr. (Nowadays one is likely enough also to be answered in what the Post Office official would call, I suppose, the Oxford accent.)

Hearing all these agreeable

the Bedford is popular wherever It goes. Why this success ? For, in designing the Bedford range, Vauxhall experts studied ever it may be). The young to protests from Cambridge men, the generic name for the two gounds about him, as he must, overseas conditions at first hand. Indies must be under 19, so that to the Supplement, as if it had on the lips of non-University this official must be a tone.

they cannot have had time for a University career, and where they would be likely to have picked up a University accent is not clear.

They learnt what was wanted in trucks from the very men who were going to use them. And thora in a world-wide organisation to make Bedford

But the phrase "Oxford service and genuine spares avail-accent" seems, beset with diffi able everywhere.

culties, and no one (even among those who use it) appears to know precisely what it means.

Tested at every stage in the famous Luton works in England, proved sound and reliable on the roughest work in the world, the Bedford is a first-class invest- ment whatever the nature of work!

There's a Bedford Model for every business.

For Particulars and Terms apply HONGKONG HOTEL

GARAGE Stubbs Road

The

Hongkong Telegraph.

WEDNESDAY, DEC. 4, 1935.

NAVAL PARLEY

PROBLEMS

Another attempt is to be made

The Oxford Dictionary has it not; even in the Supplement, though it has various other Ox- ford combinations, such Oxford Blue and the Oxford

...

been founded some time after Can patriotism go 1890 or so. further?)

IN any case, views as to the nature of the so-called Ox- ford accent seem many and I have recently col- divergent. lected opinions about it. They be tabulated roughly as

can

follows:

(1) It consists in a narrowing and closing of vowel sounds, such as the i in nine, etc., which is pronounced a; the long o, pro- nounced approximately cu, the short a in man, pronounced men; and so on. In short, the accent of Penley's Private Secretary,

speakers; Oxford is, for some reason, more widely known to the general public. Perhaps it was Oxford's forty years' start that did it. Let that pass.)

THE official proceeded, it seems,

to express a preference for the London above all other British accents. I cannot help feeling that this must have been an outburst of pure Metropoli- tan patriotism. The London (including Middlesex and Essex rural districts) seems to me de finitely the ugliest British ac- cent.

Listen, to the school-children shouting at their play, the van-

OXFORD

ACCENTS

to discover a means of effecting NOTES OF THE DAY associated with Oxford, is not through the streets; and com-

an agreement between principal Naval Powers, in order

to prevent an armaments race MAN OF MANY PARTS when the Washington and

are

if

A forw

the one which the Post Office now deprecates.

accent.

Scotland, Ireland or Wales.

deafened patriot indeed to pre- for Cockney, with its flat, un- lovely twang, its thin, impover ished texture, its urban com- monness, to the lilts, the burrs, the full-bodied music of much of Greater Britain..

BUT perhaps he is thinking if so, it must be owned that he merely of intelligibility; and,

Is right. For most Londoners, to be addressed by telephone operators in rich Wessex or roll- ing Northumbrian, or even in the sweet liit of the Celtic We must be spoken to as we can fringe, might be disconcerting.

understand, and have the opera- tors our poor Cockney

deserve.

ears

But the Post Office official should not have said, "London girls speak best." That is to claim too absolute a merit for this wretched Metropolitan lingo. He should have said, "London girls apeak most suit- ably for London ears."

And his reference to Oxford accents still remains wrapped in mystery. Were I an applicant, I should be perplexed to know what speech I must avoid at my audition.

The Very Idea!

The Scotsmen

Take any slow train from Lon- Eddie Kelly Gets Amongst · don to anywhere, and note how delightful it is when the names of the small stations begin to be called with a burr, with that pleasant twist round the tongue that no Londoner can emulate. When I am in the West Coun-

The Management of the King's and Alhambra Theatres are offering free passes to "Bonnie Scotland" to the first five Scotsmen presenting

That is only the start of it. Mr.

and of the proverbial stage drivers reviling or greeting one curate.

another, the rag, bone and bottle How this speech came to be vendors crying their warex known. I have heard it gaid by pare the sounds thus emitted Cambridge men that it appro- with the sounds of similar aches more, nearly to a Cam- activities in Devonshire villages, bridge accent of some years in Hampshire and Sussex Innes, London Treaties expire at the Canada is congratulating her- back, when to mince was the in Cornish fishing-porta, in the end of next year. It is already self upon the appointment (now fashion in some circles. 1. have North or West Country, in FREE: A MAGIC WORD realised, however, that the task that Canadians have met the man certainly heard this pronuncia confronting the delegates who and discovered more about him)tion occasionally used by tele- to meet in London very of their new Governor-General, phone operators, so it may be shortly is an almost super- Lord Tweedsmuir, until human one. Prospects are that months ago much better known as extreme dificulty will be ex- the novelist, John Buchan. The

(2) The broad and flat vowel perienced in devising a scheme Canadian public has made all sorts

about sounds parodied by Scots, Irish which will meet the demands of of interesting discoveries

themselves in kilts at the theatre all the parties. It is clear, Lord Tweedsmuir. They thought men and northerners as al: e... of him formerly as the author of dinnah, deah, crentehah, etc.

on Saturday.-News iten however, that Britain has beenGreenmantle and The Thirty-Nine I have never heard a telephone try I will inquire the way of left sadly behind in the matter Steps and Huntingtower, or as the operator use these; it would not, some graceful agriculturist on Edward Kelly, with his neudi brilliant of naval construction, and, even artist who compiled one of the naturally, be encouraged in a my road merely for the pleasure forethought, has written the articles an agreement is eventually most intimate and appealing in profession which specialises on of hearing the rich, slow that will appear-in-Hongkong_news--

on Saturday, Sunday a reached, the need of modernis-graphies of Sir Walter Scott and a

the trilled r.

euphony of his reply. When I papers Cromwell.

Monday, thus scoring a notable senop ing the British Navy and of masterpiece on Oliver

(3) The broadening of the am in the Highlands the voices for the Telegraph." securing a more equitable rela-They may have apprecinted his

They follow: tive strength will have to be scholarship, but they did not know vowel into something like ah, of moorland shepherds croon

RIOTOUS SCENES faced. That Britain has seri- that he was one of the most brillfants divah-in for divine. This is about me like doves, while their of the only one of these three ac- children twitter like small birds. students ever to come out ously reduced her first line of

And on the Cumberland fells

Kilted Scotsmen Mob Police defence is beyond question. The Oxford.. He had been M.P. (Con-cents commonly heard to-day

servative, of course) for the among young University men what noble, what unintelligible facts show that the total num- Scottish Universities since 1927, and women.. Does the P.O.. music rises and falls, like the Outside I.K. Theatres ber of ships in the Navy in 1914 but he had never been a politician; mean this? It is, of course, the running of the burn in spate!

Amazing scenes were witnessed on was 457; to-day, it is 273. The and Canadians discovered that. It opposite of the name for nine There is a Devonshire woman in both sides of the harbour last night, personnel in 1914 was 146,047, plensed them to find that this man

a small street near me; her hus- when crowds of foreigners, dressed compared. with 94,482 at whom they had admired as a writer

(4) The ordinary educated band is a cobbler, and they have in a man experienced in present. In the meantime, the was population of the United King- niinistration in many ways. He public school and University ac- lived in London for thirty years mittance to the Alhambra Theatre dom has increased, with nearly had been with the High Commiscent of England, called by aoine and more; but I will take my

English." shoes to be soled there in pre- King's Theatre in Hongkong. Bioner in South Africa, Lord Milner, people five million more mouths to as private secretary; he had beenThis does not pronounce the r ference to elsewhere for the feed, whilst the merchant on the headquarters staff of the except as initial or link letter, sake of the pretty Devon voice theatre, attracted, no doubt, by. fleet has decreased, and in this British Army in France: he was nor roll it even then, and might, that greets me. In the dairy connection it must be borne in Director of Information under the therefore, be rejected by our next door to her the sing-song mind that in time of war every Prime Minister, 1917-1918, through- trilling telephone service. of Wales croons to me. merchant ship sunk or captured out England's blackest war days. ability had been would represent a greater loss His executive to the supply service than was proved. More than that, he bad shown a fare for diplomacy, and the case during the last war. Coming to the matter of dis. as a spenker he was amongst the armament, what are the facts?first few in the House of Commons. Upon the basis of numbers of He was one of those with "the xrand imanner," unruled even in ships

in the main categories,the most heated debates. erudite, Britain shows a decrease of 40 sharp to find an opening in his on- per cent.. the United States anponent's argument, and piercing It increase of 130 per cent.. Italy with cold calculation and with an increase of 96 per cent,, und | rapier thrusta. Such was hia Japan an increase of 76 per fluency, and the sword-like charne- cent. In the matter of modern-ter of his repartee, that he became ising the fleet, the British record much-feared speaker before muny months had passed, even as a back- compares unfavourably with bencher. But Canada French that of other naval Powers. At shown a flair for diplomacy, and the present moment, no British sympathette gentleman received his capital ship has been fully first welcome to the Dominion In modernised, and the first one which he will be the King's repre- will not be completed until 1937. | sentative—had another surprize to Against this we have to place | come, He rose to respond to the the fact that the United States Prime Minister's address of wel has modernised ten of its fifteen come, and was warmly applauded. capital ships during the past But when he spoke in reply to the twelve years, while of nine Quebec Premier's greeting, a deep hush fell upon the gathering at Japanese capital ships. three

Rideau Hall, For the have been completely recon- Governor-General was speaking in structed and four are in French, the polished French which course of reconstruction, while

(Continued on Page 4.) all will have been modernised carly in 1987. These facts

new

Dro .beyond dispute; they which will come up for consi- have been publicly stated by the deration. Whatever else is done, First Lord of the Admiralty. Britain will have to face the It is clear, therefore, that im- modernisation of her fleet: If medinte action is required if the a satisfactory scheme of dis- accurity of the Empire is to be armament, based on the needs assured. All these factors will of the various Powers, can be doubt be stressed at the devised, so much the better. da coming Naval Conference; thoy But the outlook at the moment

have a vital bearing on the issues is not altogether encouraging.

LANE, CRAWFORD, LTD.

no

"southern

“Boys, I'm just being perfectly frank. I haven't the slightest Iden whether he was safe or not.

to gain ad- skirts, attempted in Nathan Road, Kowloon, and the Since early Friday night, large numbers had formed queues outshe reports that admission was FRE

rumour quickly It appears that a spread through the gatherings that the free tickets, limited to only five at each theatre, had been obtained in Home underhand way by a well known Scotsman connected with a lending Hongkong newspaper.

Six policemen were Injured before the mobs were given to understand that the tickets would not be dia. tributed until 9 p.m.

At 8.55 pm. a carload of late ar rivals, proceeding hurriedly down Nathan Road towards the Alhambra, crushed into one of the Safety First beacons.

Eighteen of the twenty- twa occupants were injured.

At 8.68 pan., just as the box offices were about to open, loud voices were heurd addressing the crowds, inform ing them that, as a counter attraction to the insidious theatre, form of advertising,

Hongkong

and Peninsula Hotels were throwing their doors open free to all bona-fide Scots.

men.

the

Miraculously the crowds dispersed, whereupon five men, dressed kilte,

in

atrolled casually to the box office and claimed the free tickets.

The Peninsula and Hongkong Hotels were wrecked.

"I HAVE BEEN ROBBED"

Well-Known. Scotsman Makes Serious Charge Against Compatriot

...

Interviewed by a Telegraph presentative this morning. Robert MacWhirter, the well-known Scots- man from Scotland, made serious charges against former friend, Mr. Donald

Діка Machinery,

from Scotland.

"I didn' bellave it of Donald," Mr. MacWhirter said,

According to Mr. MacWhirter, Mr. MacHinary had approached him in a (Continued on Page 4)