Welsh Journals

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In such a collection of photographs, some incongruity is perhaps unavoidable as, for example the Sarastone (no. 38, p. 29) being shown 'about to enter Barry Docks'; also the Camborne (no. 88, p. 65) is said to be 'a typical Welsh schooner', but had no apparent connection with Cardiff. There may be some concealed justification for including under the section 'From Oceans' Farthest Coasts' photographs of vessels (nos. 109-11, 115, 116, 123, 128) which do not seem to have in any way formed part of 'Shipping at Cardiff. Nevertheless, this publication contains an attractive collection of first-rate photographic reproductions of an unusually wide range of ships. The clarity of definition of most of the photographs is an eloquent tribute to the expertise of the Hansen family of photographers. It is indeed appropriate that the complete Hansen Collection of over 4,500 negatives should now be preserved in the photographic archive of the Welsh Industrial and Maritime Museum which stands adjacent to the site whose former maritime facilities played such a major role, not only in shaping the city of Cardiff with its magnificent civic centre and elegant commercial buildings, but also in lubricating the commercial processes upon which the economic and social development of the Glamorgan coalfield rested so heavily during the most exciting, if turbulent, period in its history. Dr. David Jenkins, and all those who have contributed to the production of this attractive photographic album, are to be warmly congratulated. The bibliography and index of ships together form a valuable appendage to the whole work: the generous financial assistance granted by the Baltic Exchange that made its publication possible has been amply justified. It should be added, perhaps, that the publication here under review should be studied alongside its more comprehensive companion volume, Cardiff Shipowners, published by the National Museum of Wales in 1986, and compiled by David Jenkins and J. Geraint Jenkins. MOELWYN I. WILLIAMS Aberystwyth CHAMBERLAIN AND APPEASEMENT: BRITISH POLICY AND THE COMING OF THE SECOND WORLD WAR. By R. A. C. Parker. Macmillan, London, 1993. Pp. 388. £ 35.00 hardback; £ 11.95 paperback. The harsh words customarily used by historians about 'appeasement' in the early decades after the end of the Second World War were increasingly replaced from around the late 1960s by more sympathetic assessments. There was a growing awareness of the global nature of the difficulties facing British policy-makers. It was said that previous historians of British policy leading up to the Second World War had concentrated too narrowly on the Anglo-German relationship. It may also be the case that Britain's decline as a great power in the post-1945 world, during which these revisionist' assessments were being made, produced a scepticism about British strength before 1939 and, with it, an unwillingness to believe that any alternative to appeasement' was really possible. Neville Chamberlain, previously often seen as an