ESPARTO GRASS 



Esparto Grass (Stipa, tenacis- 

 sima). Tall perennial grass of the 

 natural order Gramineae. It is a 

 native of S. 

 Europe and N. 

 Africa, where it 

 grows in rocky 

 soil. Its leaves 

 are rolled in 

 ^^^^ from the edges, 

 W; 1 1 so that they 

 M ^ffSSBr 1 appear thread- 

 1 ^m %***' 1 like. Being 

 ! tough and wiry, 



; A. ,-., - ^J it is used in the 



Esparto Grass manufacture of 

 ropes, mats, and a very durable 

 kind of paper. For the latter 

 purpose many thousands of tons 

 of the grass are imported into 

 Britain annually. As a crop it 

 yields about 10 tons per acre. 

 See Paper. 



Esperance. Harbour of W. 

 Australia. It is situated on the S. 

 coast, 220 m. N.E. of Albany. Gold 

 from Coolgardie is shipped here. 

 Pop. 239. 



Esperanto. International lan- 

 guage invented by Dr. Zamenhof, 

 an oculist of Warsaw. Completed 

 in 1878, and first published in 1887, 

 it has since made great strides, 

 the number of Esperanto societies 

 rising from 26 in 1901 to 2,700 in 

 1913. The alphabet consists of 28 

 letters, none of which offers any dif- 

 ficulty to English-speaking people. 

 The omission of Y, however, and its 

 representation by J may at first 

 cause slight confusion. The follow- 

 ing are the terminations of words : 

 -o, noun (nominative) ; -a, adject- 

 ive ; -;, plural ; -n, objective (accu- 

 sative) ; -e, adverb ; (tenses) -as, 

 present, -is, past, -os, future ; 

 (active participles) -anta, present, 

 -inta, past, -onta, future ; (passive 

 participles) -ata, -ita, -ota. 



The passive is formed by the aid of 

 esti, to be, the tense required being 

 indicated by the proper participle. 

 About 30 prefixes and suffixes are 

 employed to form derivatives ; e.g. 

 mal-, indicating the exact con- 

 trary: bona, good, malbona, bad; 

 il, instrument; haki, hew; hakilo, 

 axe ; -ist, trade or occupation ; 

 boto, boot, botisto, bootmaker ; ig-, 

 factitive (causing an action), bruli, 

 burn, bruligi, cause to burn. Com- 

 pounds are formed by combining 

 the root or simple forms of words : 

 fervojo, railway, iron way. The 

 word gesamideanoj (people of the 

 same idea) is a good illustration 

 of word-formation ; ge denotes 

 males and females ; sam, same ; 

 ide, idea ; an, a partisan ; o, noun 

 ending ; j, plural. There is an in- 

 geniously constructed table of cor- 

 relative words demonstrative, in- 

 definite, inclusive, negative, and 

 relative. 



2975 



The language is easily learned, 

 every rule being without exception, 

 the spelling phonetic, and the 

 vocabulary surprisingly small. 



International congresses have 

 been held annually since 1905, 

 except during the years 1914-18, 

 at Boulogne, Geneva, Cambridge, 

 Dresden, Barcelona, Washington, 

 Antwerp, Cracow, Berne, Paris, San 

 Francisco, arid (Aug., 1920) The 

 Hague. These have been attended 

 by representatives of 30 or more 

 countries, with an attendance 

 varying from 1,000 to 4,000. The 

 language is controlled by an inter- 

 national academy and a language 

 committee, and the organization 

 of the movement by the central 

 office at 51, Rue Clichy, Paris. 

 Many eminent philologists have 

 pronounced warmly in its favour. 

 It is officially taught in a number 

 of colleges and schools. Many firms 

 now use it for business purposes, 

 and there is a growing demand for 

 competent teachers. 



There is & flourishing literature, 

 translated and original, and some 

 70 Esperanto periodicals are now 

 published regularly. The language 

 is recognized by the British 

 Post Office, and has received 

 much government support in other 

 countries. It is claimed that 

 the general adoption of Esper- 

 anto as an auxiliary language for 

 international use would remove 

 one of the chief obstacles in the 

 way of world-peace, facilitate the 

 working and effectiveness of inter- 

 national congresses, save money 

 and effort now spent on transla- 

 tions and interpreters, lighten the 

 curricula, and increase the effi- 

 ciency of schools, render literary 

 masterpieces and scientific works 

 accessible to the world, and facili- 

 tate the study of other tongues, 

 besides its obvious utility in travel, 

 science, commerce, and in all 

 branches of human activity. The 

 headquarters for the British Em- 

 pire is The British Esperanto As- 

 sociation, Incd., 17, Hart Street, 

 London, W.C. The Universala 

 Esperanto -Asocio, 14, Museum- 

 strasse, Berne, deals with the 

 practical application of the lan- 

 guage to business, travel, etc. 

 See Language ; Phonetics ; con- 

 sult also International Language, 

 W. J. Clark, 1907. 



Esperanza, LA. Town of Hon- 

 duras, capital of the dept. of Inti- 

 buca. It stands on a plateau at an 

 alt. of nearly 5,000 ft. above sea 

 level, 45 m* W.N.W. of Teguci- 

 galpa. The Indian city of Intibuca 

 is adjacent. Pop. 11,453. 



Espinal. Town of Colombia, hi 

 the dept. of Tolima. It stands at 

 an alt. of 1,020 ft., 25 m. N.E. of 

 Purificaeion, and 75 m. S.W. of 



ESPIONAGE 



Bogota. It is the centre of an agri- 

 cultural district, producing coffee, 

 cocoa, and tobacco, and manufac- 

 tures pottery. Pop. 10,010. 



Espionage (Fr. espion, spy). 

 Aiding an enemy by supplying in- 

 formation otherwise than as a belli- 

 gerent engaged on reconnaissance 

 duty, or as a citizen openly helping 

 his own country. The soldier if 

 captured must be treated as a 

 prisoner of war ; a civilian may be 

 guilty of a war crime, such as Var 

 treason, but in neither case, if no 

 dissimulation has been practised, 

 is the offence that of espionage. 



Espionage as defined by the 

 Hague Rules was extensively em- 

 ployed during the American Civil 

 War of 1861-65, and as the belli- 

 gerents spoke a common language, 

 the offence was hard to detect. A 

 favourite plan of the "couriers" 

 was to be captured by the enemy, 

 and as prisoners of war, on the way 

 to the enemy's base, to make a 

 careful study of his camps and 

 depots. When the hour approached 

 for internment, an escape was 

 effected, the outpost lines re- 

 crossed, and a report prepared. 

 British officers on the retreat from 

 Mons in Aug., 1914, testify to the 

 execution of two German officers, 

 who, dressed in the correct uniform 

 of the British staff, made a tour of 

 British positions in a British motor- 

 car, and in faultless English ques- 

 tioned the troops at important 

 points. In Westminster Abbey lie 

 the remains of John Andre (q.v.), 

 an English soldier, who was hanged 

 as a spy in 1780, during the Ameri- 

 can War of Independence. Even in 

 time of peace soldiers are employed 

 as agents of the Intelligence De- 

 partments to visit other countries 

 and obtain information by stealth. 

 General "JBaden-Powell has de- 

 scribed his own adventures as one 

 of these agents. He cannot be 

 regarded as a spy, since his investi- 

 gations had no reference to an 

 actual enemy. On the other hand, 

 he was knowingly breaking the 

 laws of the country visited in 

 pursuing illegitimate inquiries, and 

 so risked a term of imprisonment. 



The methods by which Germany 

 obtained information of economic 

 and military value in peace time 

 are peculiar. An insurance office in 

 Paris would afford a pretext for the 

 employment of German reserve 

 officers to tour the E. of France, 

 ostensibly in search of clients. An 

 offer was made to a French insur- 

 ance office to relieve it of all risk in 

 respect of important clients such as 

 the Creusot Works, and thus the 

 German agency was furnished with 

 daily reports in regard to the staff 

 and also the material of war manu- 

 factured by the French company. 



