Cylchgronau Cymru

Chwiliwch trwy dros 450 o deitlau a 1.2 miliwn o dudalennau

THE WELSH OUTLOOK The Editor does not necessarily identify himself with the opinions of contributors t(ft"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 Labour and It is of great importance to us as national- The League ists to have our nationalism defined, or we shall fail in the wider outlook to which we are all being called upon more and moie to give our consideration. We are out for an effective League of Nations, and yet in a sense the League is an anti-national organization. Mr. George Barnes has lately pointed out that the League of Nations is far from being all that we had hoped it would be, mainly owing to the great strength of nationalism, and the brutal fact" that conflicting material interests still keep nations apart. Our national- ism in Wales is not of this kind. Our ideal is intensive and not antagonistic. We wish to add to the material interests of the Kingdom and the Empire and the world. We think it can be done best by intensifying the national life. Our nationalism is the need to set our house in order. Citizenship means efficiency in the home. Nationalism to us means the efficiency of the people. Labour and nationalism in Wales can come to terms here. The efficiency of the people is their common aim at home, and abroad they have an equal duty in their attitude and their contribution to the efficiency and peace of the world. And the League of Nations Covenant provides the neces- sary platform for this wider co-operation in the organisa- tion of labour which has been agreed upon to be established at the seat of the League. This Labour section of the Covenant has infinite possibilities in it, and may well be the road that will ultimately become the highway to the final temple of peace of the future. When the horrors of the recent war fade from the memory, common action in matters of common concern must then become effective in the interests of world peace. The framers of the Covenant have realised that the best way of getting the League developed was to get it to function in matters of every day life and concern to the peoples. Industrial and economic questions are disturbing factors in world affairs, because SEPTEMBER, 1919. competing and selfish interests have been left free to make them so. Hence the importance of the Article in the Covenant by which the members ot the League bind themselves together to maintain fair and humane conditions of life. By the establishment of a Labour secretariat it is hoped and believed that a most wholesome and necessary check will be given to competition of countries in which labour is sweated and oppressed. In the interests of workers everywhere it is becoming essential that a common basis and agreement should be found for settling labour conditions. The settlement of wages, of hours of labour, and of improved conditions in one country affects the world's industrial development, and it is most essential that these matters should be the world's concern and not merely that of any particular nation. The efficiency and the welfare of one people depends upon that of all the others. Labour is already fully aware of this fact and Labour is genuinely international in that respect. Nation- alism must be equally enthusiastic. Wales has an unique opportunity for this amalgamation and concentration. Principal It is almost difficult to believe that Principal Roberts Roberts is dead and we are convinced that hardly any of us fully realize the loss which Wales has suffered through his death. Ever since he left Oxford in 1881, after a most distinguished academic career, every hour of his active life was spent in the service of Wales. There was no phase of national activity in which he was not interested, but the consuming passion of his life was the cause of Welsh education. His contribution towards the solution of its many problems and the surmounting of its many difficulties was as great if not greater than that of almost any man of his generation, and only those who for twenty-eight years have been in intimate contact with all our educational activities can give any adequate idea of the extent of his services and the value