Welsh Journals

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THE WELSH OUTLOOK The Editor does not necessarily identify himself with the opinions of contributors to r The Welsh Outlook. Editorial responsibility is limited to the views expressed in the "Notes of the Month," and in the unsigned article immediately following. NOTES OF THE MONTH The Greatest Month after month we begin this section Crusade with a reference to the progress of the idea of the League of Nations. We do so because it is the only light we can see clearly in the realm of foreign affairs, and because we consider it a duty to keep ourselves and our readers ever in contact with a movement over which even The Times is enthusiastic enough to call The Greatest Crusade. We particularly desire to congratulate the League of Nations' Union on having at last brought the subject of its activities so well before the British public as it did on October 13th, when the autumn publicity campaign began at the Mansion House under the auspices of the King and the Prime Minister, under the presidency of the Lord Mayor of London, and with the presence of Mr. Asquith, Lord Robert Cecil, Mr. Clynes, the Ambassadors and Ministers of many European Powers, and the heads of many of the great municipalities of the United Kingdom. The League of Nations Union has had to wait a considerable length of time for this triumph, and it reflects great credit upon a band of a very few enthusiastic believers in the cause who have worked indefatigably for many months to popularise the idea of the League in the Kingdom, that in spite of apathy on the part of the public, in spite of hostility from various quarters, in spite of great difficulties in respect of organisation and finance, they have brought the people of the country face to face with the need for sup- porting in a very definite way this first-born daughter of the Great Peace. Not even in the days of the creating of the Covenant was there so much talk of the League as there is at present in town and country. The Press is full of the crusade. The Mansion House meeting has set the pens of all the leader writers in motion, and every important weekly review has long dissertations upon the subject. The matter is now under discussion in the market places and in the clubs, and it is being brought NOVEMBER, 1919. home to the hearths and the chimney-comers. The Union will do well to take immediate advantage of the present openings into the mind of the public. It has deserved the present success. We are convinced that the publicity of the moment is due entirely to the activities of the League of Nations' Union. It has now received almost an official sanction, and it has certainly received the attention of the Press and the ear of the public. The work is only in its beginning, however, and the Union will be justified only when Britain accepts the idea of the League as the sine qua non of prosperity and of existence itself. Devolution At last after a long and inexplicable delay Committee of over three months, the names of the members of the Select Committee on Devolution have been announced, and the Welsh repre- sentation upon it, in the persons of Lord Aberdare, Mr. John Hugh Edwards, Mr. Charles Edwards, and Mr. L. Forestier Walker, is of peculiar interest. Of course, the Prime Minister had an exceptionally difficult task in selecting from the array of talent among his Welsh following those most qualified in knowledge, in experience, and in political wisdom to serve on a Committee which will have to deal with some of the most complicated political ques- tions of the moment. We suppose, however, that he will be heartily congratulated upon his choice. There is a peculiar appropriateness in the selection of Lord Aberdare to represent the Welsh Peers. His father did a great deal for the cause of education in Wales, and the son is, in consequence, President of the Welsh University. He is described in the reference books as Liberal, though if we remember rightly he definitely broke away from thet party (was it on Welsh Disestablishment ?) and subscribed towards the expenses of the Tory candidate for Merthyr Tydfil. He does not know any Welsh and has therefore