This is a matter for the trustees

This is a matter for the trustees.MOIRA PROTANIMARK LACEYCharities GroupS J Berwin & Co, SolicitorsLondon WC1. An order of the Charity Commissioners or of the court would normally be required before an unconditional gift of cash could be disclaimed. First, there is clear legal authority that the trustees of an established charity cannot properly disclaim an unconditional gift of cash unless they can make out a case that, by accepting the gift, they would in some way prejudice or compromise the achievement of their charitable purposes. Sir: In the photo caption accompanying your article “Church repents over wartime silence” (1 October), the writer refers to “Polish concentration camps”. I believe that it means German concentration camps in Poland This is not just a matter of semantics. We would not be happy if a wartime German camp in the Channel Islands was referred to as a “British camp”

MIKE HARRIS
London N10. Sir: You report (6 October) that Michael O’Mara, the publisher of Diana, Her True Story – In Her Own Words, may establish a new charity dedicated to the removal and banning of land mines if the charities to which he planned to make a “substantial” donation decide not to accept his money.

Apparently, the chief executives of the proposed recipient charities said they would not accept what they saw as “dirty money” Two points arise. The advantages of recycling are obvious; the millennium will not arrive until the computer industry is able to cure all its ills, the Government will be able to achieve all its year 2000 targets, the millennium dome will be completed in time and everyone will have sufficient opportunity to plan for the big event

STUART BULL
Gainsborough,Lincolnshire. Sir: Sean Woods (Letters, 4 October) suggests that we should reset calendars to the year 1900 in order to defeat the computer industry’s impending millennium doom I propose an alternative: recycle the year 1999. It is how I get my kicks, and also, I am glad to say, make my living. Incidentally, Dr Webster of Aberdeen, thank you for your letter, and my answer is that the word you are thinking of is not “out tray” but outre. Both are, of course, pronounced exactly the same in your part of the world.Do you want to help Professor Wordsmith stay solvent? Then keep those queries rolling in!. So we should really say “Rotshild …”.Isn’t this all incredibly pedantic?Professor Wordsmith writes: Of course Pedantry is my game.

But the German origin is rot Schild, which means something like Red Shield. There is an American composer called Gottschalk who is often pronounced by them as “Gott’s chalk”. I noticed not so long ago that Sue Lawley on `Desert Island Discs’ pronounced Gervase de Peyer’s surname as “Pay-yay”, whereas Radio 3 announcers always call him “de Pie-er”. In the same sort of way, we always pronounce the name Rothschild wrong, as if it were “Roth’s child”. In fact, it should be pronounced “Gottshalk’, as it comes from a German word Schalk, meaning “rogue”. Is it possible to pronounce a name two different ways?Professor Wordsmith writes: Yes The right way and the wrong way Miss Lawley was wrong But I have noticed that Radio 3 gets things wrong as well. Mr Wyatt’s usage was incorrect, because he used it before a verb The BBC is not what it was, I fear.It certainly isn’t.

What I am waiting for now is “Nature vs Nietzsche”.Mr Will Wyatt was quoted in this space yesterday as saying: “I hope we didn’t overly suggest …”. Is this word “overly” a new one coined by the BBC, or is it legit?Professor Wordsmith writes: Oh, no, it’s a proper word all right, as long as it is used in front of an adjective, as in “his films were overly violent”. And it’s a rare week that nobody says “descriptive, not prescriptive”. Listen to a programme such as Melvyn Bragg’s Start the Week, and as soon as they start rehearsing the heredity vs environment argument, someone is bound to say, “Oh, nature vs nurture”. How the makers of Irish Mist get on, I do not know, but not well, I should imagine.Next question, please!We are often told by the intellectuals that rhyme is old-fashioned.