A reader enlightens me:

Mr Derbyshire–As you no doubt have learned from hundreds of people in the last half hour, a boarding party would bring its mp3 players with them because the little devices are remarkably handy for storing recordings of short simple phrases — Stop, Line up in straight rows, Keep your hands in plain sight, Open this container, Thank you for your cooperation, and the like — in Arabic, Persian, French, Tagolog, Korean, etc. Your average leading seaman doesn’t need to master the dozens of languages he’s likely to encounter in a week in the Gulf, he just scans his library for the correct phrase in the right language and presses play. Of course, the things have enough memory, he probably had room for the latest Fallout Boy single as well as any work stuff.

I would have thought the Pet Shop Boys would be more in AB Batchelor’s line. And what happened to the fine, old, tried’n’tested, Empire-approved British method of communicating with foreigners: Talk to the blighters in English, and if they don’t understand you, SHOUT.