Welsh Journals

And then, a woman sang a song Made by a man who mended boots,- A song of mother's love. And the women all wept, and the men looked far away. I bit my lip, and savagely stemmed my tears With thoughts of what a boy would have done with Death. It was years ago, and that is all that stays Of that one day among the lonely hills. THE POLITICAL FUTURE OF WALES THE correspondence already published, and that given 1 below, with reference to my article in the February number of the Welsh Outlook on The Political Future of Wales," should surely, of itself, be sufficient to un- deceive any easy-going optimist who may have hugged to his heart the comfortable opinion that zeal and energy in the public interest and a realization of the true needs of his country had ceased to be indispensable qualities in a Welsh politician. There is hardly a communication which does not reveal a great dissatisfaction with persons and things as they are-and this is the first condition of reform. The letters also generally indicate a readiness to enter the fray with any leader who will blow an honest and a clear note on the trumpet, and there is little doubt that the intensity of the dissatisfaction and of the desire for a complete change is even greater among the masses of the Welsh people who will only become vocal at the polls. It was perhaps hardly to be expected that those who at the moment occupy the seats of the mighty-the present representatives of Wales in Parliament-should join in the chorus of benediction. Many of them, we believe, smile and say that they have heard these distant rumblings before, but that the earth- quake has never yet been registered on their sensitive seismographs. We fear that from the point of view of their own personal experiences there are very considerable grounds for their incredulity, and it must become the first concern of every true Welsh nationalist to see that the signs do not prove false once more. It is a great hour in the life of all small nations. The last three years have seen an awakening of the national conscience among small peoples without parallel in the history of Europe, at any rate since 1848. Their grim events have brought home in an immeasurable degree the sense of civic and political responsibility, and the con- sequences of political action or inaction. The terrible necessities of the future will offer small national units within great empires undreamt-of opportunities of self- development and self-determination. While political leaders have been slumbering through the days of necessary political truces, the youth of the nations have been thinking amidst tragedies and realities, and from what they are freely and frankly saying it is obvious that When Death shall have taken all the sons of men, And if earth should be no more, There is one thing I would tell the good God if I might- I would tell Him that, far away Among my own pitiful years. There was once an hour of time and matter, once, That He must have forgotten, or never have heeded, If it have fallen into nothingness for ever. T. Gwynn Jones. they mean to turn their energies to the cleansing of our domestic politics and the straightening of its tortuosities. Whether the wonderful piece of machinery set forth in a crude way in the article will, if and when set in motion, turn out a remarkable kind of political-brick is not certain, but it should do something towards this pre- liminary cleansing process, and when that is done the manufacture of the improved political brick can be com- menced with a new and more finished instrument if necessary. The writer hopes in the near future to consider the criticisms and suggestions of your correspondents in detail, but one or two remarks will not be out of place even at this point. It must have struck every one that the most significant feature of the correspondence generally is the strong opinion expressed from all parts of Wales, and from representatives of the most divergent schools of political thought, in favour of immediate Welsh autonomy. This shows a deeper dissatisfaction with the policy of the ex- isting Welsh party-who have in the past been inclined to sneer at Welsh Home Rule as an impossibilists' dream- than is apparent on the surface, and its importance can hardly be exaggerated. Some of your correspondents are inclined to cavil at what appears to them to be the absence of a political policy in the country itself-but their answer is to be found in this general agreement on self-government. Wales is beginning to give a coherent and determined expression to the demand for a separate legislative council, and if its demand is to be effective a party is required in the House who will believe in it, who will fight for it and who will be able to convince the pre- dominant partner that the sooner autonomy is extended to the Principality, the better it will be for the United Kingdom and the Empire. The economic collapse of Wales after the Napoleonic Wars, and the attempt to deal with the peculiar situation as a part of a general problem of reconstruction, led to the Rebecca riots-a drama which under similar conditions will be re-enacted again, with the difference that this time the discontent will have educated and disciplined leaders. Further, if the question of autonomy is postponed sine die now the pressure of industrial and social problems will for generations make the consideration of purely national questions impossible.