A BASIC PHONETIC READER
PART III

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CONTENTS

PART II
TOM THUMB	34
CRUSOE GIVES HELP TO FRIDAY	40
JERRY's NEW YEAR	50
FLORIZEL AND PERDITA	58
GULLIVER PUTS AN END TO A WAR	66
THE WHISTLE	74
THE STRANGE BEHAVIOUR OF MR. LEGRAND	80
KEAWE's BOTTLE	88
HOICHI THE BIWA-PLAYER	98
BUILDING THE ARK	106
PART III
THE DISCOVERY OF THE EGYPT'S GOLD	116
THE HOTEL	124
THE LEAGUE OF NATIONS AND WAR	132
THE KELLOGG AGREEMENT	138
THE SUN's SYSTEM	144
TRADE UNDER HENRY VII	150
WEIGHT AND MASS	156
THE STORY OF JUDAS	166
MONEY and PURCHASING POWER	176
HARRY POTTER and The Half-Blood Prince


The following are the stories in Basic English, without the facing pages in International Phonetic Script.

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PART III a

THE DISCOVERY OF THE EGYPT'S GOLD ¹

    One day in May 1922 when there was thick mist, a French ship made a hole in the steamship Egypt, and she went down with a loss of 86 persons There was gold and silver on her for which insurance had been taken out with the underwriters of Lloyd's for £1,058,978, and in ten days those men put their names on cheques for this great amount, and gave them to the person who had been the owners of the gold and silver.
    Even when a ship has gone down and is resting on the sea-bed, the goods inside her are still somebody's property, and the Egypt's gold was the property of the underwriters and insurance companies. They were very sad about it. It seemed that the gold would never be got from the sea.
    The position of the ship was not clear. Nobody was certain where it was, because the mist had made it impossible for the place to be rightly marked on the sea-map. But all the water round there was over 500 feet deep, and in water as deep as that it is not possible for men to go down and do work. But they came to the decision to make an attempt at the discovery of the ship's position, so that they might have knowledge of where the gold was even if they were unable to get it back again. Steamers with lifting apparatus, and others used for fishing in the sea, went out to have a look for the Egypt. It was very uninteresting work and was without effect.
    The months became years and it seemed impossible that the gold would ever be got. But there were two engineers who did not give up hope. They were quite conscious of the fact that they would not be able to get the gold up in the normal way, but they had in mind an apparatus in which a man might be shut up and kept safe from the great force of the sea and sent up and down into the deep waters as if he was in a lift. If something like this was used, it seemed to them that the gold might be got back -- if, that is, they came across the Egypt at all.
    Then the Italian experts who had made use of the German metal deep-sea dress made an offer to take on the work. They took their steel lines up and down over the sea-bed, looking for the Egypt. From time to time the line got fixed on something, which was generally a mass of stone. They came across one or two other ships which had gone down, but these were seen to be the wrong ones, and for the time they had to give up.
    In the winter, when the bad weather kept them in harbour and made it impossible for them to go out after the Egypt, a very good idea came to someone. in pace of pulling their steel line over the sea-bed and wasting their time and money through it becoming fixed on masses of stone and getting broken, they made a decision to have it hanging from a line of supports so that it would be about 25 feet from the sea-bed. It would then be kept off the masses of stone but it would still come up against the Egypt,which was much higher than 25 feet.
    They were rewarded. On August 30, 1930, the line got fixed on something which they were certain was the Egypt.
    They had had much experience in the Mediterranean with that strange-looking German dress made of metal. They had ways of moving things which were 300 feet down. They had made strange grips for lifting things up from the sea-bed, and they had made a new apparatus, like a great medal pipe shut up a the ends, for going down into very deep water ; the metal pipe was as tall as a man.
    This apparatus was tested by dropping it down 900 feet into the sea, and it was not damaged by the great force of the water. They were making certain that the man in it would be safe when he was dropped down to the Egypt. This apparatus was something in which a man was able to take up his position and see what was gong on round him ; it was something which was able to go up and down in the water like a lift. There were vessels of oxygen (O) inside for the man, enough to keep him breathing for hours ; there was a telephone through which he was able to give his orders to the men on the ship.
    Keep in mind, however, that the man inside the pipe was unable to do any work himself. If he had seen all the gold in existence before him he would not have been able to put out a finger to it. He would only be able to take a look at it through the windows made of a special glass, and give direction to those on the ship about where to put their grips. If the grips were not let down in the right place, he would only be able to say they had to be moved a little this way or that for another attempt. That was the only way they had a chance of getting up the Egypt's gold -- by making attempt after attempt.
    They sent the man down in the new apparatus, moving him slowly about over the ship. He saw by the position of the boat-supports that the boats had been let down. This was the Egypt all right. He was certain of it, and gave the news to his friends overhead.
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1 . This is put into Basic from Deep-sea Diving, David Masters (Nelson), pp 77-80.

THE HOTEL ¹

    Head Porter : Have you taken a room, sir ?
    Mr. Anyman : No. Put my things down here while I go to the office. (To woman at office) Have you a room for one ?
    Woman at Office : We're very full up this week. I have no small rooms at all at present. How long are you going to be here?
    Mr. Anyman : For two weeks probably.
    Woman at Office : I'll let you have a room with two beds at a special price till Monday, and after that we will be able to give you a small room. Will that be all right ?
    Mr. Anyman : I'm, very much against moving if here's any possible way out of it. I was hoping to get everything out of my boxes after the journey. Have you any other suggestions to make ?
    Woman at Office : No, that's the best I am able to do. Every other hotel in London is booked up in the same way. In fact, quite a number of persons have been sent on to us.
    Mr. Anyman : That's the worst of London at this time of year. Well, I'll have to take what there is. Is this room quiet ? That's the great thing.
    Woman at Office : Yes, very ; it's at the back. And so's the other one. In fact, they're two of the quietest rooms in the hotel.
    Mr. Anyman : And has it a micro-wave oven ?
    Woman at Office : The room you're going into today has. The smaller one hasn't, but the restaurant is only through that walkway. All the rooms have computer connections.
    Mr. Anyman : Good. And the price ?
    Woman at Office : The room with the cooking area is fifty pounds. The other will be thirty pounds.
    Mr. Anyman : All right, I'll take the room.
    Woman at Office : Will you make payment by credit card?
    Mr. Anyman : Certainly. Here is my American Express card.
    Woman at Office : The room is on the second floor, near the lift. Here is your key. Let me have it back when you go out.
    Mr. Anyman : I will. A friend may be coming in to see me between six and seven. If he does, will you let him go straight up to my room?
    Woman at Office : Certainly. The porter will take you up if you are ready to go now.
    Hotel Porter : Your boxes will come up separately. This is the room, sir.
    Mr. Anyman : Is it possible to get the window open? It’s very warm in here with the heating.
    Hotel Porter : Is it open enough now? This window’s very stiff, and that’s the best I’m able to do.
    Mr. Anyman : That will be all right.
    Hotel Porter : I’ll send the girl to you.
    Helping Girl : Have you everything, sir?
    Mr. Anyman : Yes, but there doesn’t seem to be a bell of any sort in the room.
    Helping Girl : All orders are sent Over the telephone, sir. You get through to the porter’s office.
    Mr. Anyman : I see. I have some dirty things. How do I send them to the wash?
    Helping Girl : If you make out a list, I’ll put them in a parcel for you, sir, and send them off tomorrow. They will be back on Saturday.
    Mr. Anyman : Good. And then another thing. When are the shoes taken for cleaning?
    Helping Girl : If you put them outside your door at night the boot boy will do them when he comes round early in the morning.
    Mr. Anyman : Oh, one minute. There’s no soap in the bathroom.
    Helping Girl : I’ll go and get you a bit flow. We’ve had very little time to get things straight in this room.
    Mr. Anyman : Well, I’ll be going out in a short time. Where’s the writing room?
    Helping Girl : On the first floor. But there are writing-tables in all the public rooms.
    Mr. Anyman : May I have a cup of tea at eight tomorrow morning?
    Helping Girl : Yes, sir. I’ll be back with your soap in a minute or two.
    Hotel Porter : Here are your boxes, sir. The boy got the numbers mixed, or you’d have had them before.
    Mr. Anyman : Good; and while you are here, will you see what has gone wrong with the electric light over my bed? It’s probably the bulb, because the other light is all right.
    Hotel Porter : That’s what’s wrong, sir. I’ll have to put in another.
    Mr. Anyman : Now I’m going to take a rest. If any one comes, the office is to say that I will not be in till six.
    Hotel Porter : Yes, sir.
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1 . From Everyday Basic, L. W. Lockhart, pp. 20-24.

THE LEAGUE OF NATIONS AND WAR ¹

    The general idea about the League of Nations is that it is an organization against war -- a side of its work which has only been touched on in this account in the story of the League's long fight for "arbitration, security, and disarmament." Our account has been chiefly about the other side, "acting together internationally," and taking a long view. This is the right way to make the danger of war less, till in the end it is not there at all.
    In the business of keeping war from taking place, the League has on record some surprising facts. For example, one Monday in October 1925, a Greek military watchman was put to death on the land limits of Bulgaria. Three days later Greek troops went into Bulgaria by force. The Bulgarian War Office sent a telegram to the head of their force:

Only put up a small fight ; take care of those in flight and in trouble ; do not let fear get a grip of the Struma Valley ; and do not put your men in danger of unnecessary losses, because the facts have been put before the Council of the League of Nations, which will probably put a stop to the attack.

    The Bulgarian request to the League to do something got to Geneva at half-past six the morning after, Friday. By half-past eleven telegrams had been sent out from Paris (because M. Briand was the acting President of the League's Council) ordering a meeting of the Council for the coming Monday. Other telegrams put Greece and Bulgaria in mind that they were part of the League, and made a request to them to keep their armies from fighting till after meeting of the Council. The telegram to Athens was in time to keep what would have been the first fight of the war from taking place.
    When the Council had its meeting on the Monday, all but one of the representatives were present. Among those who came were the British Foreign Secretary, the French Foreign Minister and the Foreign Minister of Sweden, who had come by airplane from Stockholm to be in time. The Council gave an order for the Greek armies to be taken back in three days. By Friday of that week the last Greek had gone of out of Bulgaria. The League had put a stop to the attack.
    But this was not all. It was not enough for the Council simply to keep the war from taking place. Its hope was, if possible, to put an end to the cause. So it sent a Committee made up of persons who had no private opinions on the question under Sir Horace Rumbold, to go into the cause of the trouble where it had taken place, to see who was responsible, and make suggestions about how to keep the same thing from taking place again. All this was done without any trouble. When the Council had another meeting in December, Greece made an agreement to give L45,000 in damages, and the government of the two countries gave effect to the League's suggestions for keeping an outburst of the same sort from taking place again. And when there was an argument about the land limits one or two months later, there was no serious trouble.
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1 . From The Organization of Peace, Maxwell Garnett, p. 110-113.

THE KELLOGG AGREEMENT ¹

    The President of the United States of America, the President of the French Republic, the King of the Belgians, the President of the Czechoslovak Republic, the King of Great Britain, Ireland, and the British Dominions over the Seas, Emperor of India, the President of the German Reich, the King of Italy, the Emperor of Japan, the President of the Republic of Poland,
    Deeply conscious that they are responsible for increasing the well-being of all nations ;
    Certain that the time has come when it is right for the nations publicly to give up war as an instrument for profiting themselves, so that the present peace and the happy relations between them may be kept undamaged ;
    Having come to the decision that all changes in their relations with one another are to be attempted only in ways which will not be a cause of war, and that such changes are right only as the outcome of a process in which peace and order are respected, and that it is right to keep any Power which puts its name to the agreement and later goes to war for its private interests from profiting by this agreement ;
    Have come to a decision to make an agreement, and for that purpose have put forward as their representatives with full powers, the President of the United States, etc. And they, having seen one another's papers of authority, giving them full power, to be certain that they are in order and in good form, have come to an agreement to make these statements in the name of all :
1. The nations supporting his agreement made a public statement, in the name of all who come under the authority of their governments, that they are against the use of war for putting an end to international troubles, and will not make use of it as an instrument for profiting themselves in their relations with one another.
2. The nations supporting this Agreement have come to the decision that they will put an end to all causes of trouble between them, of whatever sort they may be or in what ever way they came into existence, in ways which will not be a cause of war.
3. The present Agreement is to be made good in law by the nations in question in whatever way their different political systems make necessary, and will take effect as between them without loss of time when their papers making the Agreement good in law have been placed at . . .
This Agreement will, when it has come into effect in this way, be kept open as long as may be necessary to get it signed by all the other Powers. Every paper giving the support of another Power will be placed at . . . and when this has been done, the Agreement will take effect straight away between the Power newly giving its support, and the other Powers which have don so in the past.
    It will be necessary for the Government of . . . to give every Government named in the first words of the Agreement, and every Government which later gives its support to the Agreement, a copy of he Agreement, backed by authority, together with a copy of every paper placed there in connection with it. It will be necessary in addition for the Government of . . . to send word by telegram, without loss of time, to all such Governments whenever a paper giving support or making that support good in law, is placed there.
    It support of these undertakings, the representatives of the different nations have put their names to the Agreement in Basic English and in French, the two forms having equal force, and the signs of their Government have been placed on it in wax.
    Done at . . . the . . . day of . . . in the Year One Thousand Nine Hundred and Twenty. . . .
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1 . From Everyday Basic, L. W. Lockhart, p 75-78

THE SUN'S SYSTEM ¹

    The view which is now taken as to the birth of the Sun's system (it gives no account of the coming into existence of the Sun itself) is based upon a very common fact which is in the knowledge of everybody. It is common knowledge that the coming up and going down of the waters of the seas, named "tides," which everyone is able to take note of everyday at the seaside, are caused by the force of attraction of the Sun and the Moon. The waters, being free, are moved by this attraction, and the tides go round the Earth chiefly after the Moon, the Sun having only a small part in causing this motion. But there is another fact, which only came to light a short time back, and which is not common knowledge. This fact, which will no doubt be a surprise to some readers, is that the tides are not limited to the seas, but that the solid face of the Earth itself undergoes tide motions in the form of a wave running round the Earth, caused by the effect of the attraction of the Moon. But this tide, though naturally very much smaller than the tides of the seas, is as much as 10 to 20 inches. It is greatest at the middle of the Earth, while it gets less in the north and south. But though this Earth tide is so much smaller than the tides of the sea, the answer to our question, How did our Earth come into separate existence ?, is pointed out by this motion. We may put it this way : The Moon is small, and the effect of its attraction on the hard Earth may be measured in inches. What would take place if the Moon was a very great body, and the Earth was a very great body, as great as the Sun ? The waves caused in the solid outer part of the Earth (which is very thin) by the attraction of the great body so near it would be quite high, so that a great amount of the substance of the Earth would be pulled completely away, and would not go back, but keep out in space, in the form possibly of a ring at first, the parts of which would then little by little come nearer and nearer together, till a ball was formed.
    That is the current view about the way in which the different great bodies forming the Sun's system came into existence. Thousands of millions of years back, when what is now our Sun was a great body, greater than now, and quite by itself, another great body coming from outer space,got nearer and nearer, till at last the attraction of the new body on the Sun was so strong that great masses of substance were broken away, forming the Earth and the other planets. On this view all such bodies were formed at the same time and out of the same great mass of substance which had been broken away, because the distances between the stars (which are in fact suns) are so great that it would not be possible that two of them would come near to one another more than once even in thousands of millions of years.
    Such is the present view as to the way in which the Sun and its system came into existence. But it is only right to say here that as the theory of Laplace was looked upon as the right one for a hundred years, and was seen to be wrong, so the new theory, which is very much younger, may, at some time in the future, be seen to be no longer in agreement with the discoveries which have than been made, and a new theory will have to be formed which will be in agreement with our new knowledge.
    But if there are these great Earth-tides, it is clear that Wells's very beautiful story named "The Star", does not give a true account of the events which would be the outcome of the conditions pictured in it. It says that a great, red body from outside the Sun's system came near to the Earth, and that the Earth was washed by great tides of the seas at a great heat, causing the destruction of almost all living things. The true outcome would not be this, but there would be great tides of the hard Earth itself, by which earth-waves hundreds of feet high would be caused. The outer face of the Earth would be broken through, great masses of liquid substance at a great heat would come out and go over all the Earth, or the Earth would even be broken up into small bits.
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1 . From A Basic Astronomy, S. L. Salzedo, pp. 21-25. Some international science words are used in this account.
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