Welsh Journals

purchasing the residue of interest in the traffic. And this is a measure of atonement which the State and the nation ought to make for permitting and fostering this great evil in our midst. Such a measure is practical and feasible, and the real complicity in the evil of the drink traffic rests Copies of the above article may be obtained at 1d. each (post free lid.); also reprints (with additions) of the articles by Sir Thomas P. Whitaker, Bart., M.P., on Temperance Reform," price 3d., post free 31d. Apply to Secretary, Welsh Outlook, Cardiff. RURAL HOUSING PLANS NATIONAL EISTEDDFOD COMPETITIONS HARDLY less important than the demand of agricultural workers for higher wages is their demand for improved cottage accommodation. The housing conditions of farm labourers in Wales are scandalously unsatisfactory, and we are glad to see that the Welsh Housing and Development Association are taking practical steps to bring about their improvement. Under the joint auspices of the Association and the Neath National Eisteddfod three prizes of £ 50 each are being offered for the best designs of cottages suitable for farm labourers to be erected in Welsh counties. In addition a special prize of £ 10 is being offered for the most suitable plan of living-in quarters 11 for unmarried farm labourers. The last mentioned competition is one of special interest. It is not generally known that the majority of boys and young men employed on Welsh farms are accommodated not in the farmhouses but in barns and stables and cattle- SELF-DETERMINATION FOR WALES THE following note by the Hon. R. Erskine of Marr in the Scottish Review is interesting as showing the attitude of a leading Scottish Home Ruler towards the idea of a pledge-bound Welsh Party advocated by a con- tributor in a recent issue of the Welsh Outlook Our able and always interesting contemporary the Welsh Outlook is presently engaged in celebrating a "symposium" touching the subject of self-government for the Principality. The writer who inaugurated the discussion would appear to think that the first requisite to success in r spect of the endeavour which, we collect, he designs to set on foot, is, the formation of a Welsh ad hoc party in the English Parliament. The debate, so far as it has at present gone, is mainly concerned with that proposal, and is interesting rather as reflecting wide-spread Welsh contemporary dissatisfaction with the existing posture of affairs in the Principality itself, and out of it at Westminster, than by reason of the display of any particular originality of thought, or fertility of political address on the part of those who have borne, so far, a part in the discussion. We beg leave to remind our Welsh fellow-Celts that modern history sees no with those who oppose the only possible measure by which such a complicity can be abolished. Thomas Rees. Independent College, Bangor. sheds. The rooms provided are frequently without light and proper ventilation, they are often draughty and damp, lights and fires are never provided, and the furniture is of the most scanty and uncomfortable character. Many of the lofts are also infested with rats, while the odours from the cattle or horses below certainly do not make for the health and happiness of the occupants. Against this inhuman method of housing young men Lady Boston has made a strong protest, and we trust that as soon as suitable designs are forthcoming the Association will take steps to make it compulsory for all landowners and farmers to provide proper accommodation for the young people in their employ. The competitions should appeal to all Welsh architects. The conditions may be obtained from Mr. Phillip Thomas, Secretary of the National Eisteddfod, Glynifor, Neath. reason to be particularly tender of the reputation of ad hoc and Pledge-bound parties as political means to definite ends. The idea of sending a Pledge-bound party to a foreign Parlia- ment, in order there to do battle for a cause which can be best and soonest served by the peoples designed to be benefitted thereby taking up the cudgels in their own behalf, and on their own soil, belongs to an armoury and an epoch that are now rapidly passing away. For our own parts, we believe that the War will automatically solve for these Kingdoms and the Principality the pregnant question of National Self-determination for each. Meantime, we would earnestly counsel our kinsmen of Wales to spare their breath for better porridge than the creation of a party pledged to talk about Home Rule for Wales in England. That way corruption, feebleness, intrigue, defeat, and hopes disappointed or deferred time after time, lie. A sense of humour, if not one of dignity, will, it is much to be hoped, shortly come to the rescue of those who in the lively pages of the Welsh Outlook are wisely combating the present insidious proposals so to dissipate the national energies. When the proper season shall come. let the Welsh people themselves rise up and demand Self-determination for their country. They have as good a right to it as the Belgians, even allowing that they are a some- what more historic and homogeneous people.