Cylchgronau Cymru

THE WELSH OUTLOOK The Editor does not necessarily identify himself with the opinions of contributors to 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 end of the Russian Polish War Russia and has been a great surprise to Europe, and Poland. Mr. Winston Churchill must feel parti- cularly foolish over the sorry part he played in it. He was one of the few people who took the eccentric cavalry dash on Warsaw as a sign that Poland was finally crushed, and he then proceeded to make a fatuous appeal to Germany to come to her rescue, and see that the little war in the East was kept going. The appeal was about as sensible as would be an invitation to Belfast Orangemen to come to the rescue of the Pope. But the two satisfactory things about the situation is that the war is over and Poland is not crushed. and both results must have been a surprise and a disappointment to a good many European statesmen. The relations between Poland and Lithuania are giving the League of Nations at the moment a considerable amount of trouble, and need very careful watching and adiustment. There is no doubt whatever that the Iri policy of our Government makes any interference by this country very difficult. In the first place, the stra- tegic argument used to justify the coercion of Ireland would entitle the Poles to seize Lithuania, and in the second, place the oppression by us of a Catholic and peasant country like Ireland must exasperate against us the Catholic peasantry of Poland. The most deplorable feature about The Coal the Coal Strike so far is the comparative Strike. levity with which it is regarded by a large mass of the public. The men, to whatever class they belong, who talk about a fight to a finish. and declare light-heartedly that even if the struggle to the bitter end is averted now, it must come some day, are enemies of their own people and of the people of the world. The strike may at any moment, if bitterness is engendered or great suffering caused, land us in utter chaos, and if it is prolonged, it will certainly NOVEMBER, 1920. bring us in this country very near to industrial and economic ruin. But what must it mean to the im- poverished and famine-stricken districts of Europe ? We would wish sometimes that both the Government and our great Trade Union leaders were better Europeans. We were surprised, for instance, to find an influential Labour leader in the course of the dispute seriously sug- gesting that the Government should grant the 2s. increase immediately and charge it wholly on export coal. We have very little reputation as it is in Europe for idealism, but we should have less still if we made the shivering millions of Europe pay for settling our coal strike. We think the miners made a mistake in not accepting the offer of an impartial tribunal, but that is not sufficient reason for carrying on the struggle until ons side has the other on its knees. The men's leaders, judging by the utterances of Mr. Brace and others, are genuinely desirous of a way out, and they must be assisted both by the Government and the public. And above all, we must not go on from one dispute to an- other, but we must rather try to arrive at some general re-organization of our industrial system, which will bring into it more of the spirit of co-operation and less of material self-interest and conflict. The Report of the Departmental Welsh Committee on Welsh Secondary Edu- Secondary cation appeared too late to be given the Education. attention it deserves in our issue this month, but we hope in our next number to publish the views of a number of our leading educa- tionalists on this interesting public document. T'.e cen- tral idea of the Report is the recommendation to set up a National Council of Education for Wales, comprising not more than 1 20 members, the great majority of whom will be appointed by the Education Authorities, the University, the teaching profession, and cer ain other bodies connected with education. This body is ih-