Tulagi’S Visitors

Some Language Difficulties

A CORRESPONDENT in the Solomons found much to appeal to his well known sense of humour during the recent visit to Tulagi of the French cruiser.

The sisters from the hospital were being shown over the vessel by a gallant French officer-whose English was not quite as good as he had hoped.

One of the sisters expressed disbelief about something he had said.

“Ah!” said the Frenchman, smiling.

“You are —what you call it?—septic! No?”

The commander accepted an invitation to stay at the Residency. The official in command of the gaol was instructed to send ten prisoners to the wharf to carry the visitor’s luggage up the hill.

It was difficult to say which was the more embarrassed, the O.C. Prisons or the Commander when the latter stepped ashore with only a small parcel. He was a real sailor-man, and needed nothing more ashore than a tooth-brush and a suit of pyjamas.

The Resident Commissioner likes his breakfast at 7.30 a.m., sharp. From that time until 9 a.m. he fumed up and down his verandah.

“Ah!” he said, grumpily, when his smil ing guest appeared. “I have been waiting breakfast for you since half-past seven! ”

“I am so very sorry,” said the Com mander. “You see, I do not eat break fast!”

The language difficulty was acute. The Tulagi folk speak no French; and some of the senior French officers were without English. The Government Secretary, as the only man around those parts who could speak fluent French, enjoyed immense popularity for a few days, and graced every function.