Welsh Journals

The Way of the World. AN INTERNATIONAL DIARY. By the Rev. Gwilym Davies, M.A. Vaguely men and women feel this, but hardly enough to shudder at it. Not one person in ten thousand realises the conse- quences of another and worse eruption of the volcanic elements still underlying the thin crust of civilisation."—Mr. J. L. Garvin in The Observer, March 13, 1927. How to establish enough political unity in the world to ensure peace how to establish enough political unity to save industry and trade from becoming the mere preliminary to a gamble with the exchange: how to establish enough political unity to control and direct the distribution of raw products, employment, and manufactured goods about the world-that in brief is the task before the human intelligence."—Mr. H. G. Wells at the Sorbonne. Paris, March 15, 1927. I. WALES. For the sixth year in succession the wiieless message of the children of Wales will be broadcast by the principal broadcasting stations throughout the world on GOODWILL DAY, MAY 18TH. A souvenir booklet of the 1927 transmission has been prepared, and will be sent on application' to the Welsh League of Nations Union, 10, Richmond Terrace, Park Plaice, Cardiff. The sixth annual conference of the Welsh League of Nations Union will be held at Whitsuntide at Oolwyn Bay. Amongst the speakers are Dame Edith Lyttleton, who moved the resolution about League teaching in1 schools at the fourth assembly in Geneva; Sir William Vincent, who led the Indian Delegation at the Seventh Assembly; Baron Von Rheinbaiben, a leading member of the German Reichstag and a member of the first German dele- gation to Geneva; Mr. David Davies, M.P., Mr. J. H. Thomas, P.C., M.P., Major Goronwy Owen, M.P., Mr. Robert Richards, the Rev J. H. Howard, M.A., and Mr. E. H. Jones, M.A. The question of arbitration is to be given special prominence, and Mr. Arnold Forster, one of the leading authorities on arbitration, has promised to speak at the con- ference at Colwyn Bay. A course om "International Relations" will be taken by Mr. Sydney Herbert, M.A., at Coleg Harlech, from Friday, July 15th, to Friday, July 22nd, 1927. Information about the various excellent summer courses at Coleg Harletch should be in the possession of everyone who cares for adult education in Wales. A well-arranged programme giving de- tailed particulars may be obtained from the warden, Mr. B. B. Thomas, M.A., 4, Bryn Terrace, Ystrad, Rhondda. Students are reminded that accommo- dation is limited, and they are therefore requested to send in their applications as soon as poseifble. There its a registration fee of 5s., and .the cost of a week at Coleg Harlech will be 35s. "All studenlts," so runs a delightful notice in the programme, "are advised to bring a strong pair of walking boots, a rainproof coat, and not to forget that the success of the outings and the social evenings will depend upon their contributions." The Welsh Schoolboy Camps Movement hopes to welcome boys from abroad and to arrange for an international "exchange" of campers. Information about the 1927 -camps may be had from either of the hon. secretaries, Mr. E. C. H. Jones, B.Sc., or Mr T. I. Ellis, M.A., 9, Roiath Court Place, Cardiff. There is one direction in which Wales can give a much-to-be-desired lead. The Rev. 'Dick' Sheppard killed the tendency to make of Armistice night a carnival of frivolity. But So fitting an opportunity has not yet been captured for the greatest of all causes'. Could not a meeting on Arbitration be arranged in every town and villaee in Wales on the night of Armistice? With the passing of the years Armistice Day should be transmuted into Arbitration Day. There could be no finer memo.rial to those who never came hack. II. U.S.A. AND NAVAL LIMITATION. Three stages mark the relations, since the war, of the United States with Europe. The first was the period when' official America persisted in the belief that the League was dead; the second was the dis- covery tJhat the League might live; the third has been eignalised Iby the frank recognition that the League ought to live, and that consequently America, as far as possible, must lend its co-oper- ation. President Ooolidge now fixes upon Geneva as the meeting place of the second "Washington" Conference, over which, it is rumoured, Mr. Charles Evans Huehes may be asked to preside. Great Britain welcomed this renewed attempt at the further limitation of naval armaments. S'o did Japan, encouaiaged by a net saving of £ 20,000,000 on capital ships as a tresult of the 5-5-3 formula of the first Washington Conference. Italy politely refused active participation, and France made it clear that she would prefer to take a leaf out of the American book ,in the sending of an "Observer." The French re-atction was expressed vigorously by so influential a leader as M. Henry de Jouvenel in an article in L'EuROPE NOUVELLE. "Mr. Presi- dent Coolidge," the said. "finds that the League of Nations is not disarming quickly enough. We are of his opinion, for ,the 17 milliards of francs that the Government of the United States sacrificed each year on its armaments seem to be a useless luxury for a country so eminently peaceful." The well- known French senator proceeds to affirm that what America wants is a navy equal to that of Great Britain and at no higher cost. The formula, of President Coolidge is not a formula for the reduction of armaments- it jis a formula for the reduction of dollars. "There is no need." he concludes, "to blush in taking the part of the poor nations and the small navies before a memorandum which appears to us to be a manifesto of the 'nouveaux riches' of militarism." Other French critics go further. They explain the new zeal of America for the limitation of cruisers by the fact that British naval designers propose to lay down cruisers of the width of 38 metres. American naval designers will want to do likewise. But the locks of the Panama Canal will not admit of ships of a greater width than 33 metres, and with a part of the fleet in the Pacific and a part in the Atlantic every American cruiser must be bre to go through the Panama canal. Of two things tlien the one. America must get an agreement with Great Britain to suppress the plan of 38 metre cruisers, or she must dig a new canal with wider locks through Nicaragua. To the logical French! mind the connection between the troubles in Nicaragua and the American memorandum for naval limitation is as iclear as daylight. All this emphasizes once more the gap that there is between Anglo-Saxon thinking and French think iing on the question of peace. We stress disarm amentt; they security. We say that peace will come through disarmament; they say that disarmament will come through peace. There was a world of meaning in the order of the words in the French