Welsh Journals

OUTLOOK NOTES OF THE MONTH St. David's The year 1915 is the 500th Anni- Day, 1915 versary of the death of Owen Glendower, and the 100th Anni- versary of the death of General Picton. So we are reminded by a most attractive booklet (The Welsh Outlook Press, sixpence, post paid sevenpence) issued i n two editions-one in English and the other in Welsh -by the Welsh Department of the Board of Educa- tion. The appearance of this booklet is becoming an annual event of no small educational importance. Its avowed intention is to lift the celebration of St. David's Day to a worthy place in the schools of our land. The new issue opens with a striking quotation from Thomas Davis of the Nation-an Irish patriot of Welsh parentage-and is followed, interalia, by a suitable letter to the children of Wales from Mr. Alfred T. Davies, the Permanent Secretary of the Department; brilliant estimates of Glendower and Picton, unsigned but betraying the hand of Mr. Owen M. Edwards, the Depart- ment's Chief Inspector of Education for Wales; several passages from Mr. Lloyd George's great speech on The World's Debt to Little Nations, and the story (and something more) of the Welsh National Anthem. To the English edition of the booklet is appended some Suggestions for Local Education Authorities and Teachers," which should be pondered by every Member of an Education Committee, and every Teacher, in Wales. The Welsh edition contains, in addition to the items mentioned above, Ceiriog's stirring Ode to Picton. The little book, which breathes in every page the spirit of a most exalted nationalism, is surely unique among patriotic publications, either in this, or any other, country. It should sell In thousands, both in and out of the schools, FEBRUARY, 1915 in fact among Welshmen everywhere. The ap- pearance of the books is no less beautiful than their contents. The cover, borders and initial letters have been designed, in the true Celtic style of ornament, by Mr. Fred. Richards, A.RE., A.R.C.A., of Newport, and among the illustrations, which include a striking portrait of General Picton, are good reproductions in colour of compound letters from the Book of Kells. A page of these we present to our readers this month by the courtesy of Mr. Alfred Davies. The Health Two annual and official reviews of the of the health of the nation have Nation recently appeared, that of the Chief Medical Officer of the Board of Education (Cd. 7730. 1 s. 8d.) and that of the Medical Officer of the Local Government Board (Cd. 7612. Is. lid.). As their prices show, they are almost of equal weight, but the latter is much the less readable. That may be because it deals mainly with external conditions and the former mainly with children, who are more interesting than their insanitary environment. But that is a very partial explanation. Sir George Newman writes with a freedom and frankness unusual in Blue Books; he faces up awkward problems of depart- mental overlapping he lets you feel that the whole- ness of the problem is not forgotten in the parts, and that he is engaged not solely in administering Acts of Parliament but in urging forward a national health revolution for six million children. You would hardly suspect in reading the Local Govern- ment Board report that there exists a Board of Education. The discussion of Infant Mortality and of Tuberculosis in the two reports to those who read between the lines is very illuminating. The present