Avel Notes And Comments

By R. W.

Robson

i Kinds of English

lEREVER I went—lndonesia or [Switzerland, Kruger National Park or Mayfair, Cairo or hnesburg or Johore—l heard American accent, and saw the iss. good-natured, old American sts tracking down the local b, and dealing vociferously with peal rates of exchange.

Would be interesting to know [many Americans are touring world at any given moment, ding the mighty American ‘s and the less welcome English iage across all international laries. 1 can get around the world quite comfortably with no age other than English. The if the United States to world •ship since World War I has ht that about. *came interested in accents. I know whether the American t has mellowed and improved, lether the nations have got to it; but most people now ; it without protest, whereas 40 years ago the “superior” 5 sneered at it. r adays, in the travel world, sneers are directed mainly it the Australian accent; and, i extraordinary number of d persons from Down-Under i the move, Australia’s rather le jangle of vowels is heard ny countries. ny ear, however, the most in )le accent in the English ige is that now produced by English “Public” Schools—in words, the Oxford accent. I the best and clearest and English is that used by the and a large section of the the language so admirably en by the Queen and her le last couple of decades, the 1 accent has been so overlaid affectation and bleat that, noisy conditions, men speak are as difficult to follow as itrians or Northumbrians, icreasing number of educated in the United Kingdom and mwealth countries—Aus- Prime Minister Menzies is iding in this respect—speak clear and pleasant English, i free of anything that can 3d an accent. That, I hope, Itimately become standard [. i and again, while travelling, :ted a quick reprimand from tig people whom I had as to be Americans: I was told that they were Canadians, at there is a big difference i the American and Canadian But a trained ear is needed nguish it.

There very definitely is a South African accent—something not un like the “Chichi” pronunciation of English you hear in certain quarters of India, and yet different. There are two official languages in South Africa, English and Afrikaans; and the accent apparently arose, origin ally, when English was spoken by those who, while completely con versant with English, habitually used the bastard tongue called Afrikaans “I put my car in the park” becomes, in the South African accent, “I put my cor in the pork.”

The SA accent will tend to in crease because the Afrikaans folk are now in command of the Gov ernment, and are doing everything possible to stimulate the use of Afrikaans, and discourage English.

Fiji’s Twin in The Indian Ocean IN the course of that long Qantas flight across the Indian Ocean, we spelled for a few hours on

Mauritius. The place looks like Fiji, smells like Fiji, grows sugar like Fiji and, to keep the Colonial Office boys on their toes, it has an Indian community problem very like that of Fiji.

The Indians were brought in to work the sugar industry, and they naturally have settled there, to make the most of life in a pleasant tropical island. We motored for 15 miles through a section of the country where the Indian villages, the swarming Indian children, the vegetation and the mountainous background could have been those of northwestern Viti Levu.

The main difference between Fiji and Mauritius is that, in Mauritius, there is no indigenous race—only a strange mixture of non-Indian folk from around the Indian Ocean* while there is a very confident and arrogant race of Europeans, descend ants of the French settlers who were there when Britain took over 150 years ago, who considerbly out number the British. English is the official language; but more French than English is spoken.

More, anon, of Fiji’s twin sugar colony.

(Continued on page 133)

n Alliance with P-NG INOTHER stop on the Johannes jburg-Sydney air route is Cocos Keeling atoll, just south of ra. To assist the new Qantas erprise, the Australian Depart lit of Territories has taken over [administration of the atoll from gapore and the British Colonial ce.

Ir. Hasluck’s myrmidons are ut to be established on the same t that carries the airfield —the it is h-Malayan community at ae islet, across the lagoon, will be in the care of No. 5 of the ious Clunies Ross family, much t has been for a hundred years, he Clunies Ross people derive r wealth from a little copra, : from the rich phosphate de ts on the nearby Christmas nd atoll, now beng worked by British Phosphate Commission, tiis Cocos Keeling atoll is now :lose alliance with Papua, New nea, and Nauru, which are all er Australian administration. ; a Government House reception lingapore in May, I noticed an active young woman in the re of a vivacious group, and d who she was. She was the ling Mrs. Clunies Ross, of Cocos ling—an English girl of good i and education, remembered, with horror, a ion report which we published le PIM in 1948, suggesting that e had been a sad muddle in the lies Ross succession, and that heir to the atoll’s throne (now lies Ross V) was “missing.” ■e was even reference to some ; marriage to “a teashop girl.” is all completely untrue —typical ish from London’s golden

w journalism. . . The pretty

in the Singapore Governor’s Ingroom showed up so nicely ist Singapore’s upper crust that p tempted to go over and re our published apology of 1948.

it An Economic

:bone Means

[AT a lucky country Australia s! had spent an hour in a Lon reading-room, studying the )mic set-up of the United King analysing official statistics i show, with tragic clarity, that s UK maintains a high average 1 and volume of exports, the >h standard of living must )se. They show, also, that that is not being maintained, ly because so many of both )yer and employed classes have off on an orgy of pleasure

ling.

Conditioned during two centuries to an enormous income from over seas investments, which became the backbone of their politico-social set up, they cannot understand now that those investments were dis sipated in war, and that their national economy no longer has a solid backbone within it.

And, there and then, I picked up a bulletin which reported that Aus tralia’s wool-clip (annually equal to nearly 4 million bales, worth about £lOO per bale) for the 11 months to May 31 was valued at £325,000,000 There, by contrast was Australia’s permanent economic backbone, which enables that country to wallow in luxury, despite a 40-hours’ week, endless strikes, administrative inefficiency and a public service swollen to the point of absurdity.

If some lunatic released a virus that would kill sheep like myxa matosis kills rabbits, Australia over night would find herself approxi mately in the same economic posi tion as Britain is in to-day.

Ex-Fijians In London

THERE was an old Fiji flavour about a small dinner party I arranged in London. Guests in cluded Mr. and Mrs. Hinchey (spending long leave in London) and Mr. and Mrs. Pennington Richards.

John Hinchey now is Treasurer of the Crown Colony of Mauritius, and therefore is next in authority under the Governor. He was for years a prominent officer in the Government of Fiji, and it was in Suva that he met and married a member of the well-known Beddows family; and she, now, as the Treasurer’s wife, is a popular young matron in that “other” sugar Colony.

Mrs. Pennington Richards, form erly was “Beau” Hennings, one of the three attractive daughters of Mrs. Elizabeth and the late Mr. Gus Hennings, of Naitauba, Lau Archi pelago. After notable service in World War 11, she married Penning

ton Richards; and if you watchl title section of the next first— English film you patronise you haps will see that the Dirr thereof was Pennington Richau he is high up in the picture w/ He was the only one of the n who did not personally knowv Fiji people and places under e discussion; but he says he is g to remedy that very soon.

This “White” Australia

AFTER seeing so many Eng§ speaking countries—inclu England itself! —wherein ans and Asians are prominem w 7 as refreshing to land again in tralia and be free of inter-rr quarrels.

I have heard the “White tralia” policy attacked many t —I myself have sometimes critical of it. But one travelss learns.

Several times, abroad, people “Cannot you see that a large i portion of cheap coloured laboi( Australia would substantially re your living costs and assist country’s development?”

Well, I examined ordinary I costs in every country visited,J some had a large communilt coloured workers. In South A/ for example, there are over 8,0(M negroes, 1,000,000 “Coloureds”' 400,000 Indians in a total of 12,000 But in not one country visit; and certainly not in South Afn were living costs any lower tha Australia.

Australia has some lively struggles—a Iwa y s “willing,” ' bitter at times —but they are diversions compared withr quarrels and hatreds in the ma,t of countries where there are communities of different races; Some day, perhaps, the peon* all races—blacks and whitess yellows—will live together peao in one community, and grao, coalesce into one race. But thr little sign of it, yet. There an many fundamental difference? temper and temperament bei£ racial types.

Words for the

Unwary

BEWARE of Johannesburg, a for unwary tourists! SS South Pacific folk, goin Europe via Southwest Asia, ann wishing to return through ’

America, may decide to travel I Europe via Africa and the service across the Indian O They go from Europe to Johas burg by BOAC or South A i Airways planes, and there trn to Qantas.

This is a word of warnim those who may plan to spend! than 24 hours in Jo’burg. The itself is an unattractive big

ropean town, built around a series [vast mine dumps in the centre an empty, tree-less veldt; and — art from the swarming native life jhere is little to interest the teller, either in the city or with hundreds of miles of it. tertain hotels charge no less than [■ Stg. for room and breakfast; 8 they are mostly notable for ir ingenuity in charging also for ry little thing from a phone call k newspaper—and for an over-all Ibbiness, the result of the all vading dust. revellers should plan a minimum ie among these dumps. But, using lurg as a centre, they can visit ie delightful areas—the great ural game reserves in Transvaal I Zululand, the Portuguese town torenzo Marques and the colourful kindly city of Durban, where re is Australian-type surfing, and |e of the world’s best hotels, l Durban, where English is pre linant, the Indian and African rants and shop assistants seem py to see you. In Jo’burg, where Afrikaans’ influence is strong, almost aggressive rudeness is imon in stores, hotels and in the ets, and one departs from the leasant place with a strong sense •elief. tie trans-Africa traveller should

stay a day or two at Livingstone, at the Victoria Falls Hotel, within sound of the Zambesi’s great Falls.

There is little to do beyond inspect ing the Falls, and taking a launch trip up the Zambesi (watching elephants, baboons, hippopotami, etc., playing around) but the hotel is one of the best holiday resorts in Africa, and the jaded traveller can lie up there in great content.

r> * rLdKOQ iVlieicne Ketums r n 10 tne * acillc A LONG the way—in Italy, in Sep tember—l came upon the tracks Hakon Mielche, a famous Danish writer with whom we of the PIM hobnobbed in Sydney over 20 years ago, when he got shipwrecked

I the Solomons, and wrote and istrated some excellent books and iny articles about the Pacific kinds.

SVith his attractive young Mexican risian wife, he arrived in Sydney a w days after I returned, and already ;h have had a lot of newspaper ft radio publicity.

Jowadays, he wanders the world, jting illustrated articles for an bortant group of Scandinavian gazines, and producing numerous vel-books. Many of the latter re gone into English editions, and |n warmly praised by reviewers. accompanied by Madame, he plans [renew his acquaintance with ynesia, and will be seen soon in [ and Tonga.