Welsh Journals

ing time for nations. In the olden days a nation tried to live its own separate life, isolated so far as possible from its neigh- bours, with whom its relations normally were hostile. Individualism in a nation was not considered in the least disgraceful. But now the world has shrunk; and no nation could, even if it so desired, live unto itself alone. Moreover, the whole moral sense of the world is now opposed to national isolation and selfishness. The day has not quite come, perhaps, but it cer- tainly is at hand, when the place of a State in the estimation of other States will not depend upon its wealth or its power, but upon its ability and willingness to live a life of cordial and unselfish co-operation. IT is this change that makes it so import- ant for Wales to play a leading part in maintaining the League of Nations. Wales to-day is clamouring for a fuller recognition of its claim to nationhood. All Welshmen believe in that claim, though they may differ as to the best means of pushing it. Is it not possible that we may try to move in the wrong direction? As a people we are prone to dwell in the past; and there does appear to be a disposition among many of our younger leaders to be content with the now obsolete form of nationalism which did very well for Poland and Ireland a quarter of a century ago. The new nationalism is something quite different from the old. The old turned its eyes inward, and sought to forget the outside world in the complacent contem- plation of its own superior excellence. The new, forgetting itself, looks out into the world asking one question only-HHow can I best serve humanity?" It is in this service of humanity that we now believe a nation is most likely to save its own soul, or, to use political phraseology, to develop its own nationhood. Let Wales beware of too much dreaming about the past, of slavish imitation of other nations, whose struggles for recognition and freedom were in far different circumstances and con- ditions. LOOKING at the affairs of Wales to-day there are, it appears to us, two move- ments of paramount importance. The first of these is the determined struggle to obtain justice for our language. The other is the attempt to revive the wan- ing interest of the people in Welsh politics. We believe these to be the most important things of the hour, first because they are both fundamental, and secondly because they are both practical, and consequently attainable. WE have more than once in these columns, in the course of the last few months, insisted upon the importance of not only maintain- ing, but actively extending, the empire of the Welsh language. Doubtless there are a few nations which, having lost their language centuries ago, long before they attained to nationhood, manage to exist, and to preserve their national self-respect, while using a borrowed tongue; but we cannot conceive the possibility of a nation continuing to exist while surrendering, little by little, a historic national language still alive. We have maintained, and we do so again now, that in the battle for the language there ought to be no truce and no compromise. No certificate in any Welsh school, no degree in any Welsh college, no chair in the Welsh University, no post on any board having to do with Wales, ought to be given to a person unable to read, write, and speak Welsh fluently. It goes without saying that no Welsh con- stituency ought to be represented by a foreigner; for that would be to reduce the whole theory of political representation to an absurdity. It is true that many English people live in Wales; and we receive them gladly into our midst; but we do demand of them that they should learn the language of the country of their adoption. Ours is not a policy of "Wales for the Welsh." We ask only of foreigners in our midst that they should behave as all Welshmen do when they decide to live in England. It has been pointed out that many hundreds