Telegraph

Posted by Kerim
June 28, 2004

Read this hilarious series of telegraphs between British colonial officials in 1916, there is a punch-line at the end, so read the whole thing. Here is how it starts:

January 1st. F.O. to Cairo
101. Greek Prime Minister wishes to import grain. Can you do this?

January 4th. Cairo to F.O.
416. Your 101 not understood. Where does he want to import? Is it into Egypt?

Its all downhill from there. This is an excerpt from a book entitled, The Leisure of an Egyptian Official, containing antidotes from the life of Lord Edward Cecil, originally published in 1921. (via Barista.)

Academic, Language, Politics

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Comments
Comment by tf on June 28, 2004 @ 3:43 pm

History records that the Greek Prime Minister’s parrot was not dead, he was just stunned.

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