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The principles of orthography adopted at Arua in 1918 were as follows :—

(1) To be as simple as possible from the Native point of view. (11) To represent each separate sound by one letter only. (111) To introduce as few special signs as possible in order to avoid the necessity for extra type.

(iv) To be guided by the generally accepted meaning of signs. (v) Where special signs are used these should be suggestive.

The Natives themselves had pointed out to them the necessity of certain diacritical signs which they had hoped to avoid. The Arua system could easily be used on typewriters and had the further advantage of making it possible for them to use the English copy- books. He had thought it necessary to point out these disadvantages of the system proposed, and though holding no brief for diacritical marks he was not anxious to abandon them unless he could feel certain that the change would be for the better.

As for the argument that the orthography of the Memorandum had been successful in West Africa, he felt that it had not been in use long enough to be certain of this point. It was said to be in general use, but there was no general agreement as to its suitability, and he felt that this Conference should be very careful in its scrutiny before committing the Southern Sudan to the use of the proposed orthography.

PROFESSOR WESTERMANN: Much of the last speaker’s remarks was not applicable to our problem, and it would take too long to deal with the speech in detail. It was true that the alphabet of the Inter- national Phonetic Association was not specially designed for Africans, but it was not intended for scientists only and was in fact largely used in Hurope as a means of teaching modern Huropean languages. If it were seriously suggested to go into the history of calligraphy the present Conference was years before its time.

ARCHDEACON SHAW deprecated postponement of a decision, but doubted whether the proposed system was really suitable for Africans.

The discussion on cursive writing and the evolution of letters was continued by several members of the Conference.

ARCHDEACON SuHAw further referred to the disadvantages caused by the fact that the proposed orthography made no provision for capital letters.

PROFESSOR WESTERMANN agreed that capitals need not be abolished.

THE CuarrMAN, after some further discussion on the procedure to be adopted for the examination of the problem with a view to arriving at an agreement, suggested that the question of orthography should now be referred to the Group Committees for discussion, as the Conference was unable to make further progress until the sounds required in the different languages had been agreed on by those Group Committees.

' The Conference agreed to this suggestion.