Welsh Journals

thinking Welshmen are anxious that one of the most important things to be done at the moment is to raise the question of Welsh financial grievances, for it has been shewn beyond doubt that Wales is being taxed from a national point of view at a higher rate than England. Perhaps Sir Edgar Jones can tell us how this can be done better under the new arrangement than the old. We will perhaps be told that it was impossible to do all this within the limits of the debate. We will forestall that criticism by commending to the notice of the Welsh Members the admirable speech of a good ecclesiastical High Tory, Major E. Wood on the occasion. The Health We understand that a deputation of Welsh Bill Members has already interviewed the President of the Local Government Board on the subject of the position of Wales in regard to the Government's Health Bill, and that Dr. Addison has expressed his willingness to grant some concession to Welsh feeling in the matter. But if the reports which have appeared in the Press are complete and accurate it is clear that the concession will amount to little more than the safeguarding of the Welsh Insurance Commission,-and, if that is all, it will give no satisfaction to enlightened Welsh opinion. Surely the Welsh Party had a sufficient notice of the imminence of the introduction of a Health Bill to be prepared with a complete health programme for Wales, and we are expecting to hear some authoritative pronounce- ment by the Party as a whole in the matter. The Scotch Members have done what the Welsh should have done. The Cardiff The action of the Cardiff Conference, Conference called together to further the cause of a Secretaryship for Wales, in taking the bold line of demanding the reality of autonomy, instead of the shadow of a separate Welsh Office, must have brought joy to the heart of every true nationalist. Our article on the Government of Wales which deals with the matter was written before the meeting was held, and evidently the delegates were in accord with the point of view which it advances. It must be clear to everyone who has given serious thought to the matter that the difficulties in the way of securing separate control of Welsh administration are as great as if not greater than those in the way of obtain- ing Home Rule. The demand for autonomy is not likely to produce anything like the obstruction from the old established administrative offices that the Secretaryship would, and it would be waste of time and energy to work for the lesser issue at a time when Home Rule is obviously within our grasp. Indeed, it soon became evident from the well arranged Press campaign in connection with the Cardiff Conference that some of its promoters were suspect of being out, not so much for a serious administrative reform, as for wider opportunities of official advancement, and the superficial insistence on what were described as the Scottish and Irish parallels-which are no parallels at all and could not possibly be of any guidance to Wales in the matter­showed that very little thought had been given to the problem. A Welsh Secretaryship, we still think, might have been of some use in preparing the way for Home Rule by gathering Welsh business into one office, but the proposal was put forward in the wrong way and at the wrong time, and the statement that all Welsh- men, except a few extremists, were united in its favour, together with the implication that they would be satisfied with it, have been shown to be absurd. The National We are informed that the gratifying Union of decision of the Conference was obtained Welsh largely through the influence of the Societies National Union of Welsh Societies (Undeb Cenedlaethol y Cymdeithasau Cymraeg). This Union, of which Mr. E. T. John is President, and Mr. Arthen Evans, General Secretary, was established at the Abergavenny Eisteddfod, Sir Edward Anwyl becoming its first President. He occupied the position until his death and was succeeded by Mr. D. Ueufer Thomas. Mr. Thomas retired after one year of office, and was succeeded by Mr. John. The organisation consists of seventy to eighty Societies, in the main located in South Wales and M';d-Wales, with, however, some important Welsh Societies in England affiliated. It has given great attention to the maintenance of the language, and has organised many conferences, exhibitions, and a Summer School, in connection with the place of the Welsh language in the educational system of the Principality. It has hitherto abstained from taking any political action excepting at its Annual Meeting in Newport last year. Immediately prior thereto the agitation for Welsh Home Rule had been much in evidence, and the Welsh Members of Parliament had declared unanimously in favour of Welsh autonomy without distinction of party. Under these circumstances the Union, feeling that the question had ceased to be a party matter, but had clearly become a national aspiration, passed an emphatic resolution in favour of Welsh autonomy. No further action was taken until a recent meeting of the executive at Swansea, when a sub-committee was formed to submit to the coming annual meeting a programme covering the more salient demands of Welsh Nationalism. We are gratified to know that the Union, in concert with the committee which convened the Llandrindod Conference last summer, has been invited to take up the conduct of the campaign in favour of Home Rule, and to arrange for a further conference at an early date. The Celtic Possibly the most striking departure Congress initiated by the Union of the Welsh Societies, was to convene at Birkenhead in 1917 the Celtic Conference, at which representatives were present from Brittany, Cornwall, Ireland, the Isle of Man, Scotland and Wales, and a series of very valuable papers were read upon the state of the language movement in the various Celtic areas, it being decided to meet again at Neath last year. The Neath Conference also proved completely successful, and a decision was taken there definitely to constitute an International Celtic Union under the style of The Celtic Congress," which will hold its first session in Edinburgh in September next, when it is hoped that representatives of the Over-Seas Celts will also be present. Concurrently with this movement, steps were