Surely the answer is -- if he is a German -- that he thought there was a
better chance that someone English would be more likely to understand French
than if he spoke to her in German? Also, possibly, that that person would be
more sympathetic to an approach spoken in French. Unfortunately he was out
of luck with Mary.
Yours ever
Diana
> From: [log in to unmask]
> Reply-To: [log in to unmask]
> Date: Thu, 7 Sep 2000 04:03:13 EDT
> To: [log in to unmask]
> Subject: Re: Mary Postgate
>
> I can make nothing of "Laty, Laty, Laty" unless he was trying to say 'lady'
> in English. But why did he then lapse into broken phrase-book French?
> "Broken, all broken" he says, then "I surrender" followed by the two
> alternative words for a doctor in a simple French dictionary - "le medécin,
> docteur" - but with an accent. Here again, I think that Kipling's evidence
> is just enough to confirm Mary's assumption - for why would a Frenchman want
> to surrender in England? It is, however, also just vague enough to leave us
> with the appalling thought that maybe, just maybe, the airman was not German
> - and if he was not, was there really a bomb?
>
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