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ated by the Communists and Bolshies of South Wales going to keep these "Reds" from the Welsh Educational Council? For ourselves we know and love and trust our South WaMs brothers and sis- ters, and Dr. Thomas Richards and others need not tear that we would create an Ulster in North Wales. By the way, let the public know that discussions on Evangelicalism and Neo-catholicism (it is just possible we ourselves might be tempted to enter the fray in the interests of rational and scientific ethics and religion) among some of our members are quite extraneous to our one and only cause as a Party, viz., Welsh autonomy and Welsh self- determination within the United Kingdom and the British Empire and the future Commonwealth of Nations. Such self-government and Home Rule is necessary to preserve and develop the best in our Welsh cuifrure, or to speak more explicitly, in our Welsh type of culture. A Welsh Parliament would also be the golden key. as far as Wales is concerned, to those reforms which are so dear to the heart of our Labour, Liberal and less reactionary Conser- vative friends. In conclusion may I also apologize for occasional bursts of Bohemianism and Neo-paganism, and per- haps threats of active as well as passive resis- tance on the part of an insignificant number of youth- ful spirits in the party.­I am, sir, yours faithiully. Criccieth, E. LLOYD OWEN, M.D., 24th July, 1927. THE TRILINGUAL EMBROGLIO. Sir,-To a woman in Geneva, forced to keep three languages going, besides Welsh, your June editorial on the subject of bilingualism, and possible tri- lingualism, was of very great interest. When the world adopts a universal language, it will, as you say, become a vital necessity for all who speak other tongues to become bilingual. For many small nations it will, at least for generations to come, be equally necessary either to become tri- lingual, or to lose their native speech. For instance, Hungarian citizens of Rumania, speaking Hungarian at home, will in school have to learn Rumanian as well as the universal language. Germans in Czechoslovakia will have to know Czech, and so of all national minorities all over the world, unless governments grow so sensible that they will be willing to transact State affairs in the universal language. But things will be no worse than they are now. As it is, these children are learning, in addition to Reviews The Vanished Empire. Putnam Weale. Macmillan, 15s. Mr. Putnam Weale is well-known as an authority on the affairs of the Far East. In this valuable work he seeks tothrow light upon the tangled politics of China in the years 1925-1926. His method is un- doubtedly sound. The first two-thirds of the book is a history of China from the earliest times down to the final overthrow of the monarchy. Then follows, in the form of letters written daily for the} Press, an account of events, as seen by an eye- witness, between the summer of 1925 and that of 1926. W.W.D. Diary of Lady Frederick Cavedish. Edited by John Biilev. Murray, 2 vols.. 36s. net. This is a singularly charming and interesting book. Born a Lyttleton, married to a Cavendish, and nearly related to the Gladstones and the great their native tongue and the language of the State, at least one of the three main European languages. In some countries it is French, in others German, very often it is in both, while English is creeping in fast. To poor school children attempting to master three or four foreign languages at once, plus Latin and Greek, the establishment of a universal language would came as a blessed relief! Supposing therefore that, let us say, French were made the universal language, and it became neces- sary for Welsh children not only to study but to know that tongue, in addition to Welsh and English. they would still be far less burdened than is a Dutch or a Serbian child in a secondary school to-day. Nevertheless I am glad to think that for Wales trilingualism is not likely to become essential. There would seem very little doubt that, with or without authority, English will become the universal language. International conferences for the most part, especially if they embrace other continents than Europe, use English necessarily, and often to the practical exclusion of other languages. For is it not after all almost the sole language of North America and Australia, the main language of South Africa, the tongue in which China, India and Japan communicate with the West, and in which the various races of India can alone communicate with one another? It may be a providential dispensation towards the least fit, that the tongue of the world's worst linguists should be universalised! On the other hand, it may be that it is because the English arid Americans have succeeded in making the rest of the world learn their language that they have never de- veloped the gift of tongues themselves. When one sees how at a meeting-point of many races, like Constantinople or the border provinces of various Eastern European States, every servant-girl speaks two or three languages, and it is a common thing for uneducated people to make themselves under- stood in five or six, one is inclined to believe that linguistic ability is due largely to circumstances. One can be optimistic therefore about the day when. by aeroplane and radio and other as yet uninvented devices, all of us will be forced out of what remains of our national isolation. Necessity, we may be fairly sure. will prove the mother of successful inter- course, and that without giving up the native tongue, which is so precious to us. — Yours sincerely, ELINED KOTSCHNIG-PRYS. 9 bis, Rue des Ohenes, Geneva. houses of Sutherland, Westminster, and Spencer, Ladv Frederick was, throughout her life, at the social and political hub of England. Her Diary is a fine mirror of the times; for she possessed not only a charming personality, but gifts of observation and of portraiture in an unusual degree. W.W.D. Memoirs. Lord Sydenham. Murray, 21s. net. The author of this autobiography is eighty years of age, and his official life began sixty years ago. He began as a young military engineer, and the siege of Plevna caused him to direct his attention to the art of fortification. This study he developed at Bermuda, Gibralter, and Malta, and later on in Egypt. From that time on he became a leading military expert, seldom orthodox, and frequently crossing swords with his superiors. In 1901 he became Governor of Victoria, and the sight of ad- vanced democracy there, as he tells us, "shattered my faith as a Liberal." The book, which is inter- esting and instructive, closes with pessimism. W.W.D.