Welsh Journals

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its best the dominant feature in jazz is improvisation, with the strange, unpredictable line of an instrumental solo against a rhythmic, formalised bass in abstract art this startling, flowing line informs the composi- tion. But while the plain man (not in this island) accepts and enjoys the jazz improvisations in a common idiom, the other, simpler idiom is erse to him, and he regards its improvisation with disfavour. Art, as the expression of personality, is strange and startling against the receding background of contemporary life. This is probably nonsense, but it seemed like a good idea a few paragraphs back. Ho-hum. Joan Miro. By James Johnson Sweeney. (88 pages 70 plates-4 in colour). The Museum of Modern Art, 11 West 53 Street, New York,$2.00 net. Paul Klee. Paintings Water-colours, 1913-1939. Edited by KarlNierendorf. Introduction by James Johnson Sweeney. (65 plates-2 in colour). Oxford University Press, New York, 86.00 net. Dublin. Wake Up, Wales!" T. I. ELLIS The Government of Wales (pp. 76; 2/-). Wake up, Wales (pp. 104 2/6d.) By Edgar L. Chappell. Foyle's Welsh Co., Ltd., 1943. THE last four years have seen a renascence of Welsh national feeling, which has manifested itself in various, and sometimes unexpected directions. One of the latest manifestations is the campaign to secure a Secretary for Wales. It is doubtful how far the ordinary inhabitant of the country has any interest in the question, or any clear idea whatsoever what the establishment of such a Secretaryship would mean. There is a very small minority in Wales, amounting to some thousands, which is well-informed on current Welsh needs and problems its medium of information and expression is the Welsh language, but it is in danger, owing to the unsatisfactory results of education in Wales during the last forty years, of finding itself left high and dry by the stream of cosmopolitan propaganda and conditioning which threatens to engulf Wales, industrial, urban, and rural alike. But one consolation is the increasing interest in Welsh problems as such which is being displayed by people who are not themselves Welsh-speaking, but by virtue of Welsh descent or residence in Wales, sympathise with and fully support the general claims based on national aspirations (to use Mr. Edgar Chappell's own words). These two booklets are most valuable, both as an indication of the trend just mentioned, and for the stimulus they can afford to the minds