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Foreign Service Candidates (Languages)

Volume 388: debated on Wednesday 31 March 1943

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6.

asked the Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs whether, in any future curriculum for the Foreign Office, candidates will be encouraged to make French their first language, Russian their second, and not be encouraged to learn German?

My right hon. Friend is not at this stage able to say which languages candidates for the Foreign Service should be required to offer at the regular examinations to be held after the war.

As German is spoken or understood probably by more people on the Continent of Europe than is any other language, would not the policy suggested in the Question be rather short-sighted?