Welsh Journals

It should be remembered that one of the results of the War was the breaking up of the big estates. Previously, tenant farmer and agricultural lab-- ourer regarded the big land-owner as the tyrant. At last, under very disadvantageous terms, the tenant farmer has become the landowner and every day the gulf between him and his worker is widen- ing. The real landlords of Wales today are the big banks, the nominal owner, in thousands of cases is virtually little more than their agent, and the agricultural worker is becoming more and more conscious of his relationship to the in- dustrial worker. It is little more than ten years ago, when in a period of purely fictitious prosper- ity, the tenant farmers bought their farms with the assistance of the banks, that the rural politics of Wales were thrown into the melting pot, but the hard truth is that anything may now happen any day in the politics of rural Wales. Before concluding, however, I must chronicle the advent into our political life of an entirely new party-the Welsh National Party. If the old di- visions are regarded as horizontal cleavages, this is an attempt at a vertical one. It starts with the assumption that Wales is a separate political en- 'i ^HE series of articles on "Wales and the World" began in the "Welsh Outlook" in January, 1928-the year of the Briand- Kellogg Pact. It was meant to serve as a window through which to look out on the march of affairs beyond our frontiers and in which Wales herself took some part. This page has stressed, as it was meant to stress, the developments in the great experiment of international co-operation. It has reflected the fortunes of the post-war initiative at collective security, the fluctuations in that impuls- ion towards unity amongst the powers upon which the League of Nations wholly depends for its usefulness. Possibly the greatest common measure was attained as far back as 1924­ nearly ten years ago--in the agreement on the preliminary phase of the Geneva Protocol, which Great Britain ultimately turned down so vast is the influence of this country at Geneva that its one negative silenced all the affirmatives. Indeed, were a graph drawn of the rise and fall, on an in- ternational scale in the course of the last decade of international co-operation it could be shown that the "tops" and "bottoms" co-incided with the attitude of the British Government to the League of Nations-with the amount of cleavage which ex- tity within the Commonwealth of British nations and among the nations of the world. Obviously this has far reaching impUcations-financial, econ- omic and political-and the leaders of the party seem to be fully aware of this. Although, elec- torally, so far it has cut a somewhat sorry figure, it has won considerable success in the develop- ment of an economic program, as was pointed out in the October issue of the "Welsh Outlook." Its members think that it will prove the real bul- wark against Communism in industrial Wales and the safeguard against political stagnation and dis- aster in rural Wales. It is undoubtedly making headway in the ranks of the students of our colleges, and is attracting to its banner many men who have belonged to the old parties and have become disillusioned-largely because it has enthusiasm and is clearly thinking out political problems from first principles. And with this I can end. The present position in Welsh politics is utterly confused; the future is hopelessly uncertain. We must put our trust in disciplined thinking, in honest purpose and in un- selfish efforts, and wherever we find them we must cherish them. WALES AND THE WORLD by Gwilym Davies isted between "the words of its mouth" and "the meditations of its heart." The graph would show a rise until 1923 and then a decided fall with the rejection by the first Labour Government of the Treaty of Mutual Assistance. Another steep rise with the introduction of the Protocol and a slump after its rejection in March 1925 by a Conserva- tive Government. Another rise took place in 1926 with the fulfilment of Locarno in Germany's elec- tion to a permanent seat on the Council of the League to be followed by another fall. The graph would rise again almost to the 1924 mark with the vigorous 1929 Assembly and its British delegation alive with ideas and overflowing with energy. Since 1930 the fall has been persistent and after September 1931 precipitous. "It is certain," writes Lord Cecil in the latest Gollancz omnibus for the intelligent man "that during the tenure of "office of this Government and largely owing to "its attitude the League has declined in influence "more than under any Government since the "War. "The Intelligent Man's way to prevent war." page 313.