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THE WELSH OUTLOOK The Editor does not necessarily; identify himself with the opinions of contributors to The Welsh Outlook." Editorial responsibility is limited to the views expressed in the Notes of the Month," and in the unsigned article immediately following. NOTES OF THE MONTH The Polish The war in Poland has taken a War. strange development. It seemed inevitable to everybody that Poland would soon be crushed by the Bol- sheviks. On this Mr. Winston Churchill and the Labour Party were for once in agreement. Mr. Churchill, with that abysmal ignorance of history which distinguishes the English governing classes, was suggest- ing that the German junkers-the hereditary enemies of Poland-should intervene to save the Treaty of Versailles, while English Labour was insisting that there should be no intervention to stop the march of the Bolsheviks on Warsaw. And now the unexpected has happened. The Poles have saved Warsaw, and, for the moment, seem to have inflicted a crushing defeat on the Red army. The result shows how badly in- formed all parties in England are over foreign affairs. But all this, interesting as it may be, only emphasizes our contention in regard to Polish issues generally ,-that they are matters which can only properly be treated by the League of Nations. It is obviously desirable on every ground that Poland should have full opportunity to develop on its own lines, and should not be absorbed in either a Russian or a German system, but to realise its national destiny and to play its full part on the life of Europe, Poland, above all, needs peace. If it foolishly makes itself the tool of French, or any other Chauvinism, its position will be one of perpetual danger. In its own interest, Poland should work determinedly for peace. We say this although 'we fully recognise that. at any rate to a considerable extent, its resistance to Bolshevism was a nationalist resistance, and think that the appeal of Polish Socialists to those of the Entente countries did not receive the consideration and sympathy it deserved. The British In our last issue we ventured to Empire. suggest that the British Empire, which six years ago seemed so stable and united, was face to face with a great crisis, and every SEPTEMBER, 1920. month makes our contention clearer. In passing the last Coercion Act, the Government definitely accepted the Sinn Fein position in Ireland,-that the two nations are at war, and that force is the ultimate sanction to our claim to govern the country. Never since the Mutiny has India been so restless, or our civil administration in that country been so full of apprehension. The Arabs of Mesopotamia are in open revolt against us, and Col. T. E. Lawrence,-than whom there is no man living better qualified to speak,-describes our administration in that country as a bloody one. And there is hardly a sign that we realise the terrible danger of it all. The only ray of hope we find is in a rumour that in regard to Egypt the spirit of true Liberalism has won, and that in spite of the unrest in the country Lord Milner and Saad Zaghil Pasha have reached an agree- ment. Great Britain, it is said, is to recognize the independence and full sovereign status of Egypt, the army of occupation is to be withdrawn, and Egypt will have full control of its own affairs, and will even be qualified for full membership of the League of Nations. We hope a great deal of this is true. It is only a generous and liberal statesmanship that will save the Empire, and make it for the world a great model of a confederacy of nations. The Council By far the most important political of Action. event of the month, if not of the whole period since the armistice, has been the direct interference of Labour to place its veto on a Russian war by the threat of industrial action, and it would be difficult to exaggerate its significance. We know that it is not the first time that the action of Parliament has been influenced by extra Parliamentary action. The story of the Carson rebellion is a disastrous instance of this. But never before has a whole section of the community declared that, in a great national crisis, the normal working of the constitution is not to be trusted, and may at any moment have to be superseded. We are not concerned to der