Welsh Journals

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THE ROUND TABLE Sept, 1928 MacMillan. 5s. The place of honour is given to the Indian prob- lem. The article is essentially an interesting his- torical survey, and the wish is expressed that the experiment in democratic local government which is to be tried for Ceylon may be available for study in some measure before the Simon Commission finally reports on India. A Frenchman writing of the British Empire draws our attention to the fact that our leadership is vanishing in so far as the Dominions are concerned and that, perhaps by way of compensation, we are taking active steps to develop the Crown Colonies. The attitude to- wards Mr. Kellog's Peace Pact is the cautious one that it is but a form into which life has still to be breathed. The writers obviously hope that it will be accepted. There is a useful review of the Chinese position, with the suggestion that the triumph of the Nationalists marks the end of one chapter and also the opening of a more difficult one. The letter from the United States is enter- taining as a survey of the American Presidential election position; it reminds us that Big Business in America is not altogether on the Republican side. The question of the birth rate is temper- ately discussed, but the writer might with advan- tage have studied Sir Charles Close on the sub- ject. There is the usual general survey of the political position in this country and in Ireland and the Dominions. The article on Canada dis- cusses the deepening of the St. Lawrence. In the Quebec section the work would be Canadian, higher up it would be international; the division of costs is an intricate question, and there are many problems concerning the levels of the lakes and their locks. H.J.F. "TELYN Y PLANT" By vf. Gwynn Jones Foyle's Welsh Depot. 9d. This is a set of lyrics and songs suitable for day schools and children's meetings. Mr. Gwynn Jones is a rural schoolmaster with a flaire for subjects of perennial interest in the child's natural environment. The form of some of the lyrics awakens a faint echo of Eifion Wyn and Crwys, and finer masters to set one's pattern by would be hard to find. The book is free from the old besetting sin of moralising that was so serious a blemish in books of this kind but a short while back. It is also free of the equally serious fault of blatant imperialism that still characterises such literature in England. The little songs in part two, de- signed for younger children, are happy in subject and setting. R.A.R. SALMON AND TROUT IN MOORLAND STREAMS By Major Kenneth Dawson Messrs Herbert Jenkins, Ltd. 7s. 6d. Most modern books on angling are written in superlatives. The trout which the authors grass are always "speckled beauties" of aldermanic proportions. Their salmon are of a size the reader never sees, except on a fishmonger's slab. Their tackle and their rods are of a rarity and a costli- ness to make us sigh. The average angler reads these books as Browning's "drudging student" reads his Plutarch,-in a day dream-and then "smilingly, contentedly awakes" from building his castles in Spain. But here is a book which Tom, Dick and Harry will enjoy and profit by, for it is written by a man like themselves to whom "a salmon is a salmon and not an everyday prize," and who has often wondered (like Tom and Dick) what it would feel like to expect to get as many salmon in a season as he now hopes to in a life- time. The chapters on the Dry Fly on Rapid Streams, Trouting in Little Waters, and Minor Tactics are specially applicable to our Welsh waters, and "West Country's" remarks on Trout Preserving and Fishing Associations contain sug- gestions of real value for the improvement of our moorland streams. E.H.J. ARWEINIAD I'R TESTAMENT NEWYDD Gan John Gwili Jenkins Bangor, 1928. The appearance of this fat volume of 650 closely reasoned pages is significant at least in two respects. Theological interest in Wales has for more than a century maintained a vigour which supplies the most favourable condition for con- structive contributions of real moment to theo- logical thought. But they must be founded on an appreciation of the results of modern scholarship These results in the sphere of New Testament criticism Gwili sets forth in this book. The other significance extends beyond theology. It is in- cumbent on the modern cultural movement in Wales to vindicate the Welsh language as an apt and natural instrument for the expression of knowledge in its various branches. In this re spect the value of Gwili's "Arweiniad" can scarcely be exaggerated. Recondite criticisri moves with ease and dignity in its Welsh garb. The author is a master of his medium; he writes lucidly and attractively, so that the Welsh student who consults his pages will delight in an unam- biguous presentation of a mass of detailed evidence. The work is in two parts. Part I. (Prolego- mena) is a survey of Jewish history in the post-