Welsh Journals

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THE WELSH OUTLOOK NOTES OF THE MONTH The A correspondent writes — The Avenger following is a true story, true in every detail and it comes, not from the Highlands of Scotland this time, but from the Highlands of Wales. My friend and I had been walking around a silent and lonely tarn in the heart of Snowdonia and were returning to the nearest village some three miles away. The rough moun- tain road led us to a very old church surrounded by a cluster of venerable yew trees. Scattered around the church was a number of small cottages. My friend who is a native of the locality pointed to one of these and said; Before the war a labourer reared in that cottage seven stalwart sons five of them have now been killed in the war, a sixth has been at the front in France for two years, and the seventh, a boy of eighteen is about to join up. He is at home for a week before proceeding to Wrex- ham." At the door of the cottage stood a rather handsome, well-built, merry-eyed lad who greeted my friend with a smile and a nod. My friend asked him in Welsh When are going, boy ? Next Monday," he replied, Well, my lad," answered my friend, I wish you the best of good luck." Instantly the merriment vanished from his eyes and a wild fierce glare came into them. He tightened his lips as he replied If God will let me kill ten Germans, two for each of my brothers, I don't care what will happen to me afterwards." We shook hands with him and walked to the village in silence feeling how futile it would be to philosophize over the horror of war. The War The month has shown conclusively that the initiative is now held firmly by our troops and those of our Allies on the Western front. The British troops are gradually and surely closing around Lens, the French offensive SEPTEMBER, 1917 at Verdun has already yielded valuable results and a large number of prisoners. The Italians have also secured a great success against the Austrians on the Isonzo, and the losses sustained by the enemy are reputed to be between 50,000 and 60,000. The Roumanians are fighting valiantly against terrible odds, while the Russian retreat appears to be coming to a stop. The new government in the latter country has a colossal task and if it succeeds in reconstructing the country and restoring efficiency in the army it will be the most notable feat of statemanship in the history of the war. Kerensky promises to be the greatest man the great war has discovered. It is now certain that if the revolution had not taken place in Russia the Tsar's government would have negotiated a separate peace and all the armies at present engaged against the Russians would have been transported to the Western and the other fronts. So that even from a military point of view the Russian revolution should be welcomed. From the point of view of civilization it is the first fruits of the war and its value is inestimable. The Spirit Perhaps the most notable thing of the about this revolution is its mag- Revolution nificient spirit. This spirit is humane and Christian in the truest and highest sense. When one reads the speeches of the leaders of the French Revolution and compares them with the speeches of Kerensky and the leaders of this revolution nothing strikes one more forcibly than this difference of spirit. In the French revolution intolerance was from the first rampant even in the speeches of the greatest among its leaders, Danton for instance, one continually meets with threatenings of slaughter and bloodshed. There was only one way of dealing with an opponent, namely, executing him. All this fierceness and