Welsh Journals

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catch the detail of that Rhondda experience, the long bitterness of the depression, the struggle between worker and capitalist, the place of the chapel and of choral singing, the clash of politics, the stubborn fight to provide secondary schools, the influence of the Workmen's Institutes, the humour, the pride, the compassion of ordinary people'. In the view of one who is a product of a Rhondda community life, which more than half of the contributors would not have known, and who would seem to have made little effort to understand and respect, the editor's intentions have been imperfectly realized. A symposium of this kind is like a fruit bowl. It is not for gazing. It is for disturbing and tasting. The contents and the arrangement must be related to the grand design of 'catching the Rhondda experience'. Does it achieve this by giving their due significance during the formative years to the non-Marxian power of religion, to the impact of pulpit teaching and preaching, to the richness of family life, to the exciting parliamentary and local elections, to the literary societies, eisteddfodau, drama com- panies, operatic societies, choirs and singing festivals in pre-depression days and particularly before the outbreak of the 1914-18 war? Hardly! To those who shared that Rhondda experience, it is-lacrimae rerum- sad to realize what a devastating effect those cruel years inflicted on the minds and spirits of many people. They produced none other than 'a stop in the brain', 'a black out in the consciousness' of so many who found themselves growing up during what his Worship describes as 'our time of trial'. The only cure for such an afflicted state is to grow in knowledge and respect for the pre-depression years, as fine a period as any in the Rhondda story. It may be that these matters were fully explored in the lecture series as a whole. In that case, it is a pity that they could not have been represented in this volume. The fruit bowl would have looked that much better. Even so, the present arrangement of chapters bears little relation to the volume's general title. Protocol certainly required precedence for the Mayor's foreword and for the editor's introduction. Thereafter, the sequence of chapters might have been-Ecological Patterns in the Rhondda Valley; Rural Rhondda; The Welsh Language; The Coal Industry and Population Changes and Social Life, 1860-1914; Secondary Education and Social Change in Rhondda, 1870-1914; Rhondda Choral Music in Victorian Times; Leaders and Led; Rhondda and the Spanish Civil War; Impressions of Life in the Rhondda Valley; The Future of the Rhondda; Planning a Future for Rhondda's People; and the Letter to the Secretary of State. These chapters vary greatly in length and quality, the most impressive being that on The Welsh Language by Ceri Lewis. This could well be published separately, as a valuable and timely contribution to Welsh studies. The book contains forty-eight photographic illustrations from a collection made by Mr. Cyril Batstone. A good proportion of them bear little relevance to the text, and one easily thinks of others which could have served that purpose. For example, the old Parish Church, St. Peter's Church, Capel y Cymer, Nebo Ystrad, Bodringallt House, the Cambrian Colliery complex, the Council Offices, Park and Dare Library and Hall,