Welsh Journals

developed in greater detail (in exchange for some of the climatological data?). The committee sponsoring emigration to Patagonia remains rather shadowy. Who were they, and how did they profit from the enterprise ? They were certainly keen enough on promoting emigration to publish some very misleading information on conditions in the area. The Argentine government emerges rather well from this account. Although the government had much to gain from the colonization of Patagonia, the treatment accorded to the Welsh immigrants, for the standards of the time and compared with other immigrant groups in Argentina, was generally fair and sometimes even indulgent. It would have been interesting to have had a fuller account of education in the colony-especially the reasons for, and the impact of, the law of 1896 which made Spanish the language used in schools. Such a decision must have entailed a recognition that the old cultural ambitions were no longer feasible. Dr. Williams brings out very well the dilemma facing the colony from the very beginning. Cultural homogeneity could only be maintained by economic isolation; yet such isolation would jeopardize the very existence of the colony, at least in the lower Chubut valley, if not to quite the same extent in the settlement in the Andes at Cwm Hyfryd. How the colony adapted to increasing economic integration in the nation, and a declining importance in the population structure of Chubut, is to form part of the next volume. This is a fascinating work which, when completed, will surely establish its claim to be the definitive account of the colony. It is also a very handsome book, well produced and with some evocative photographs. Both author and publisher deserve praise. ALAN ANGELL St. Antony's College, Oxford NONCONFORMITY IN MODERN BRITISH POLITICS. By Stephen Koss. Batsford, 1975. Pp. 263, index. £ 7.00. Professor Stephen Koss, an American scholar, has made a bold attempt to write a study of Nonconformity in British politics during the twentieth century which, if not completely successful, is a welcome addition to the relatively small number of studies concerned with modern politics and religion. He brings to the task a wide knowledge of recent British political history, though his awareness of the subtle nuances within Nonconformity seems less sharp. Nevertheless, his research has been thorough amongst unpublished material. It is distressing to learn of the number of leading Nonconformist ministers whose papers have presumably found their last resting place in the incinerator. One wonders, however, after reading these pages, whether the explanation for the widespread destruction is to be found in his suggestion that ministers were 'self-effacing individuals' who conceived of themselves as 'mere agents of a higher authority'. Without descending to names, not a few, at least in public, seem to have a good conceit of themselves. More prosaic reasons are likely to be found