Welsh Journals

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AN OUTSIDER LOOKS AT NATIONALISM Brodawel," Llanbister, Llandrindod Wells, Dydd Sul, 29-6-46. Annwyl Keidrych Rhys, I was warmed and gratified by H. W. Archer's What's Right with Wales in the June issue of your paper. With Welsh blood in the maternal side of my family and a deep interest in hill farming it was practically inevitable that I should gravitate to Wales to settle down, and intimate contact with the Welsh has displayed to me many of their characteristics. Some of these are explicable some inexplicable. Among the latter is the apparent lack of faith in their own traditions, and an absence of confidence in Wales' own particular contribution to such features of life as the breeding of excellent livestock. Rarely have I encountered anything but sympathy and understanding for the unique qualities of, say, Welsh Black cattle among outsiders to Wales. Heated debates have almost always risen when one attempted to convince Welshmen of the unique qualities of livestock bred and developed for generations in their own land. I cannot remember ever having to defend Welsh cattle in debate with any one but Welshmen. One of the most notable breeding grounds of the typically English dairy Shorthorn is in Wales. One of the richest farming areas in Wales is populated primarily by Friesians.-And in England some farmers are struggling to maintain herds of Welsh Blacks because they have found from experience passed down, generation to generation that the breed is unequalled in certain ways. But try and tell this to a Welshman Welsh neighbours of mine, after appraising my small herd of Blacks have remarked Ay, fine looking beasts but the wrong colour Every conceivable argument is advanced against a system of husbandry based on the breeding of their own' cattle. Time and time again one encounters among the Cymry a peculiar attitude almost of apology for their Welshness.' Why is this ? Is it an inferiority complex conceived in a minority race ? If so, what a pity the Irish cannot be inoculated with the virus Or the Yugoslavs and the Sudanese Whatever it is-humility, inferiority-it is destructive of the hopes for Wales and militates against the struggle for the position Wales and the Welsh are entitled to hold in the councils of, shall I say, the Commonwealth. On too many occasions I have heard a Welshman say of one of his countrymen "My only objection to So-and-so is that he is a Nationalist." But why ? I am not a Welshman born and bred-wish I were-but I have a deep sympathy for the Welsh Nationalist movement. I consider the programme this movement placed before its electorate in 1945, was one of the finest schemes for sound, peaceful development of a people and a country ever formulated. Why deprecate the Nationalist ? Can it not be understood that the greatest and most useful families in human history have consisted of individuals each trained and perfected in the field of their own innate talents and qualities ? The family group, whether it be in the shelter of a home, or on a national scale, cannot make the contribution humanity is entitled to expect from it unless each component part is trained, efficient, conscious of its own especial qualities and well versed in the expression of those qualities. I do not venture to assert that Wales can only recover equilibrium through the adoption of its Nationalist party but I do know that strength may only be found in unity. There must be no divisions. And Wales must regain confidence, the right kind of pride, and what I can only call punch.' She must develop the ability to put herself across and throw all of herself into the process unhampered by any sense of inferiority or undue humility. And my experience so far, has shewn me that a vigorous nationalist movement-vigorous in thought, politics, sociology and economics-is the only process whereby any people can make its own peculiar contribution to the councils of the nations. My own feelings about Wales may be summarised in the statement that I consider the Principality one of the finest tracts of country in the world her natural wealth immense her typical livestock unrivalled her people the warmest-hearted and most democratic I know: her spiritual potential greater than anywhere else in the United Kingdom and her service-potential essential to the recovery of stability in these islands. Cofion cynnes, G. METCALF.