Welsh Journals

Explain, Please, Mr. Griffiths By D. J. DAVIES. MOST of the article by Mr. Jim Griffiths, M.P., in the July number of Wales covers well-trodden ground; but towards the end he mounts into the cloudy realms of speculation; and here he leaves us puzzled, and wanting further explanation. Says Mr. Griffiths, I dismiss political independence, or Dominion status, as an immediate possibility. Even if it were desirable, it is not practicable If Wales became politically independent the first consequence would be a reduction in the scope and the level of our social services that our people would not stand for. The Beveridge Plan may be only half-alive in Britain. It would be still-born in a separated Wales." If true, these are statements of momentous import for our future. I would go so far as to say that the question of whether Wales, as Wales, is to have any future at all depends on whether they are true or not. In view of the importance of the issue, would it be permissible to ask Mr. Griffiths to give us some statement of facts, some evidence to enable us to judge how far his sweeping assertions are correct ? What are the reasons which, in his opinion, render Wales incapable of political independence or even of Dominion status ? Explain, please, Mr. Griffiths Is it that Wales is too small a unit to be able to support adequately a government and social services of her own ? Surely not In spite of the appalling forced migrations from Wales in the past quarter-century, our population is only a little less than that of Norway-that valiant small "United Nation" to whom nobody denies the practicability of self-government. It is actually larger than the population of New Zealand (1,559,000), larger, too, than the population of either Latvia (1,950,502) or Estonia (1,126,413), who were able to give their people a happy and prosperous self-supporting life until the belligerent leviathans-first Russia, and then Germany-swallowed them up in 1940-41. In 1936 the English Consul at Tallin reported on Estonia: Comparative prosperity, trade increasing, industries thriving, favour- able trade balance, commercial activity, agricultural contentment, and