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opportunities. Plans for the settlement of ex-service men on the land have been drawn up, and enquiries are being made into the hiring system in North Wales, with special reference to the living-in of men and women. Committees are also at work on ways and means of developing the social life of the villages and on the formation of organisations to this end, on Rural Industries, and on the use of Crown and Common Land. Perhaps the most important work which has been done is that on the water power resources of North Wales. In view of the decisions of the Coal Conservation Committee of the Ministry of Reconstruction, it is of the utmost importance that the water power and hill side districts of Wales shall not be appropriated and exploited. Conferences have been held with representatives of the County Councils of North Wales and representations made to the Board of Trade. At present a Committee is conducting enquiries into the possibilities of the development of water and electric power in the rural districts in such a manner as to protect rural life and rural industries and to safeguard the public interest. Similar enquiries are also being conducted in South Wales. Enough has been given to indicate the scope and possibilities of the work. It is of particular importance at the present time, to see that the proposals which the central government are issuing are suitable to Welsh conditions, and if not, to take steps to have these proposals amended. The work already accomplished by the Association is sufficient proof of the necessity for its existence. We propose each month to deal with current problems of reconstruction, more particularly affecting Wales, ard to pass in review any government or other publications which con- cern them. S.H.W. REVIEWS "Christopher-a Study in Human Personality," by Sir Oliver Lodger London Cassell & Co. Pp. 293. 7s. 6d. The books written to commemorate the youth of Britain who fell in the Great War fill an ever-growing space on a consecrated shelf of our libraries, but we cannot recall among them one quite like the work now before us. The stages of the story are simple and direct and in no way exceptional in incident-childhood, school, camp, a month in France, death at 19. The book is unusual in the frankness of its revelation of a perfect companionship between a gifted mother and a devoted son, a revelation so intimate of mutual trust and joyous affection as to set an ideal to which all parents would fain aspire. Christopher was the son of Mr. and Mrs. Coombe Tennant, of Cadox- ton Lodge, Neath, and the book has naturally a special interest for Welsh readers. Christopher had a strain of Welsh blood in him on his mother's side, and counted himself wholly a Welshman. He walked in the Gorsedd procession at the proclamation of the National Eisteddfod in June, 1917, and was delighted at his mother's participation in the preparations for the festival. Those who were present at the Eisteddfod will recall the part played in it by the Welsh Guards to which regiment Christopher had belonged. Of them he writes from France The men are very wonderful-everyone says so-and very Welsh." Sir Oliver Lodge is known as an exponent of views of our relation to the spiritual world which attract some and repel others. We are told in these pages the story of a compact made between mother and son, which provided what each should do under certain eventualities. It is told with perfect taste and sympathy, and no one can peruse it without feeling its purifying power and being led upwards to the contemplation of that Beauty which is the end of all. Forty New Poems," by W. H. Davies. London: Fifield. Pp. 53. 4s. net. It is a commonplace of the reviews that W. H. Davies is a strayed Elizabethan. It should, however, be noticed that he has something of the elusive breath-catching charm of William Blake, and of Francis Thompson in his simpler moods (for instance "Daisy.") The only modern poet with whom we would compare him is Egbert Sandford, whose)" Brookdown has much of the same spirit as The Forty Poems before us. His most characteristic recent expression of his creed-the beauty of the unconsidered things of nature--is in the lines I hear it said yon land is poor, In spite of those rich cowslip roots And all the springing larks it shoots To heaven from the cowslips' roots. THE WELSH OUTLOOK But I with eyes that beauty find, And music ever in my mind, Feed my thoughts well upon that grass Which starves the horse, the ox, and ass." There is something more than freshness here. There is mysticism- a grasping at the hidden essences of things-which is mediaeval. Did W. H. Davies write Oft have I seen in fields the little birds Go in between a bullock's legs to eat, But what gives me most joy is when I see Snow on my doorstep printed by their feet ? Or was it St. Francis of Assisi ? Oscar Lloyd. THE NATION'S SERVANTS. (RESULTS OF GENERAL ELECTION, DECEMBER, 1918). C.U.— Coalition Unionist. C.L.— Coalition Liberal. Name. CONSTITUENCY. PARTY. MAJORITY. BOROUGHS: J. C. Gould Cardiff (Central) C.U. 3,879. Sir William Seager Cardiff (East) C.L. 1,985. J. Herbert Cory Cardiff (South) C.U. 3,619. Rt. Hon. D. Lloyd George Carnarvon Boro's. C.L. 12,898. C.B.Stanton Merthyr Tydfil (Aberdare) C.Ind. & L. 16,595. Sir Edgar Jones Merthyr Tydfil (Merthyr) C.L. 1,445. Lewis Haslam Newport C.L. 3,846. Major D. Watts Morgan Rhondda (East) Labour Unopposed. Rt. Hon. W. Abraham Rhondda (West) Labour Unopposed T. J. Williams Swansea (East) C.L. 4,730. Rt. Hon. Sir A. Mond Swansea (West) .C.L. 1,181. Rt. Hon. J. Herbert Lewis University of Wales C.L. 563. COUNTIES Brig.-Gen. Sir O. Thomas Anglesey Labour 140. Sidney Robinson Brecon and Radnor C.L. Unopposed. Vaughan Davies Cardigan C.L. Unopposed. John Hinds Carmarthen C.L. Unopposed. J. Towyn Jones Carmarthen (Llanelly) C.L. 1,935. Major C. E. Breese Carnarvon C.L. 2,343. Sir D. S. Davies Denbigh (Denbigh) ..C.L. 11,815. Sir R. J. Thomas Denbigh (Wrexham) C.L. 14,374. Major T. Parry Flintshire C.L. Unopposed. Major J. Edwards Glamorgan (Aberavon) C.L. 5,877. Alfred Onions Glamorgan (Caerphilly) Labour 2,014. John Williams Glamorgan (Gower) Labour 1,756. Major W. Cope Glamorgan (Llandaff & C.U. 6,700. Barry) J. Hugh Edwards Glamorgan (Neath) C.L. 8,148. Lieut. T. A. Lewis Glamorgan (Pontypridd) C.L. 3,175.' Vernon Hartshorn^ Glamorgan (Ogmore) Labour Unopposed. H. Haydn Jones & Merioneth L Unopposed. Chas. Edwards Monmouth (Bedwellty) Labour 1,560. L. Forestier-Walker Monmouth (Monmouth) C.U. 2,975. Tom Griffiths. Monmouth (Pontypool) Labour 1,417. Rt. Hon. William Brace Monmouth (Abertillery) Labour Unopposed. Rt. Hon. Thos. Richards Monmouth (Ebbw Vale) Labour Unopposed. Major David Davies Montgomery C.L. Unopposed. Sir Evan D. Jones ..Pembroke C.L. 11,488.