Welsh Journals

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VOLUME XIX WELSH OUTLOOK Where there is no vision the people perish NOTES OF THE MONTH ONCE more we have the pleasure of placing on record an excellent instance of those practical acts of neighbourliness for which the Prince of Wales has so eloquently ap- pealed in his recent public utterances. The honours go this month to our compatriots in the metropolis, and, in particular, to the Glamorgan Society there. With characteristic zeal on behalf of his old students, Sir William Rothenstein (Prin- cipal of the Royal College of Art), has for some time been directing the attention of a number of Welshmen in London to the remarkable, but in many cases the unrecognised, talent of a number of young Welsh artists, and the dire financial straits to which they are being reduced in these hard times. Even artists must have bread, and for them there is no dole." As a first step, the Glamorgan Society undertook to finance and or- ganise an exhibition of the works of a gifted young Welsh artist named A. Rhys Griffiths- originally a miner in the neighbourhood of Gor- seinion, whose striking artistic qualities were developed later at the Swansea School of Art and the Royal College of Art. The exhibition was held, very appropriately, in the Young Wales Centre at Mecklenburgh Square. The attend- ance was excellent, and Mrs. D. Owen Evans, who acted as hostess to the company assembled, declared the exhibition open. We are glad to learn that a number of Mr. Griffiths's works were disposed of to eager buyers, and that a sum of about £ 150 will pass to the artist from willing purses. That simple fact is in itself of no little importance in the special circumstances of this case but far greater significance attaches to the timely encouragement given, in this very effective and unobtrusive way, to a young Welshman of great artistic ability by the Welsh people them- selves. Moreover, a precedent has thus been set THE NUMBER V i MAY 1932 which may lead to a similar opportunity being provided each year in future for bringing into prominence the artistic works of other mute, inglorious geniuses from Wales, who may otherwise for far too long be allowed to waste their sweetness on the desert air." Bravo, the London Welsh! WHY not a Welsh Community Council in London? This was the question asked by Sir Percy Watkins in his recent ad- dress at the annual meeting of the Union of Welsh Cultural Societies in London. It is perhaps not generally known in Wales that there are over a score of very flourishing Welsh Societies in London that there are over thirty Welsh Churches of all denominations that nearly every county in Wales has its County Society in London that there is a London Association of Old Students of each of the University Colleges of Wales and that there are a number of other Welsh Societies for pur- poses connected with charitable aid, with various kinds of sport, with music, temperance and Sunday School work, not to mention a goodly sprinkling of Freemason Lodges. It is difficult to make an accurate estimate of the number of Welshmen in London, but the number is already probably equal to the population of one of the minor counties in Wales, and it is ever on the increase. The general standard of interest in the affairs of the homeland is high, and the national spirit strong. What is needed is direction and co-ordination, a sense of unity based upon the one broad principle of love of Wales, her history, her institutions, and her movements. That there is need of some concentration of interest amid the mighty and scattered fragments of life in Greater London, no one would deny. That some cohesion