Welsh Journals

conference,4 which agreed to consider Irish home rule at its first meeting in June. This discussion of home rule presented a golden opportunity to the advocates of Scottish and Welsh home rule to present the case for an extension of a measure of autonomy to their respective countries. Thus, on 4 August 1910 the Scottish National Committee, established by a group of Scottish Liberal M.Ps., issued a manifesto calling for self-government for Scotland as part of a scheme of federal home rule throughout the United Kingdom.5 Contact between E. T. John and the home rule advocates north of the border had already been established.6 Then, three days after the publication of the Scottish manifesto, John emerged from political anonymity with a lengthy letter to the Manchester Guardian in which he argued the case for federal home rule. John regarded as beneficial the 'unfettered development of the characteristics and idiosyncracies of the four nationalities', and proceeded: To anyone who knows Wales, the wisdom is fairly obvious of remitting to a body elected exclusively by the Welsh constituencies the control of education and licensing, the administration of the Poor Law, municipal and rural self- government, the maintenance of roads, the conservation and development of the nation's resources by afforestation, the creation of land banks, the multiplication of light railways, the protection in the interests of the community of the potential energy represented by our mountain streams, the value of our watersheds.7 Although he had played a leading role in the activities of the Cleveland and Durham Welsh National Society, John's sole previous involvement in the politics of Welsh home rule seems to have been an article published in the journal Cymru Fydd in 1889.8 In 1910 John hoped that he might secure the support of a number of Welsh M.Ps., a sufficient number to justify a deputation to Asquith, the prime minister, and thus influence the proceedings of the inter-party conference.9 E. T. John maintained close links with the Scottish National Committee with which forty-four Scottish M.Ps., led by W. H. Cowan (East Aberdeen), were associated.10 Cowan believed that John's letter to the press should be 'the starting point for a sustained and vigorous campaign of correspondence' 4 Fair, op. cit., pp. 83-86. 5 Manchester Guardian, 5 August 1910. 6 N.L.W., E. T. John papers 17: Hugh Gilzean Reid to E. T. John, 9 August 1910 (copy). 7 Manchester Guardian, 8 August 1910. E. T. John, 'Edmund Burke and the Irish question', Cymru Fydd, Vol. n, no. 1 (November 1889), pp. 608-18. N.L.W., E. T. John papers 18: E. T. John to H. A. Watt, [c. 10 August 1910] (copy). 10 Morgan, op. cit., p. 256.