Cylchgronau Cymru

ture replicas of it to move in due order from the church and chapel gates to the door of the chair- man of the parish council, and on from street to street of the old royal borough-we can put, what might best be called a castle play," before an audience of eight thousand people, who, as has been before proved, will hear every word of every episode, owing to the excellent acoustic proper- ties of the castle walls within which the pageant will be played. And those words, whether in verse or prose, will be worth listening to, as they have all been written by men of established literary reputation. Indeed, the Merioneth Education Committee, and the masters of county schools there and in Carnarvon, have acknow- ledged the value of their literary quality by cir- culating pageant books which had been left over from the pageant of 1920, amongst their elder Wales at Work. A SOCIAL DIARY. [By The Rev. Gwilym Davies, M.A.] The Committee of Management of the Welsh School of Social Service has learnt with much gratification of the establishment of Coleg Harlech as a centre of adult education. It looks forward to its development as the home of many-sided activities calculated to promote the personal develop. ment of its students and to equip them for en- lightened and disinterested social service. The College starts with the great initial advantages in respect of its fine situation, its admirable buildings and its courageous and generous sponsors. The Committee look forward with confidence to the speedy attainment by the institution to a place of honour and usefulness in the life of the nation. The Committee further desire to congratulate Mr. Ben Bowen Thomas very warmly on being called to preside over one of the most interesting and promising experiments in the life of modern Wales. It assures him of its best wishes for the success of the work to which he has been called at a time when he is capable of bringing clear vision, unspent enthusiasm and whole-hearted devotion to his task and pledges itself to support him in every possible way in this great venture of faith. From the Minutes of a meeting of the Committee of Management of the Welsh School of Social Service, May 26th-28th, 1927. INTERNATIONAL. The Celtic Congress met at Bangor on July 18-27. Mr. E. T. John, in his presidential address, looked forward to the formation of a Celtic Federal Union devoting itself exclusively to questions of domestic government and international relations. He held that infinite advantage would arise from an inter- change of experience, past and present, of hopes and aspirations, methods and policy, between the leaders of Ireland, Scotland, Wales and Brittany, with possibly the Speaker of the Ancient House of Keys presiding over their deliberation. Sir Harry Reichel and Professor J. E. Lloyd extended a hea;rty wel- come to the Congress on behalf of the University College. scholars. This suggestion came to me after a conversation with X ice-Principal Edwards, who said, 1 do not know of a better way of teaching history than through the pageant." And, after all, Harlech Castle embodies more of their history of which Welshmen are prouder, and of their legends which appeal more to their imagination, than any castle in the Principality-the keep whose marvellous defence by Dafydd ap Einion gave birth to The Men of Harlech," the Par- liament House of Owain Glyndwr, and the safe asylum of Jasper and Henry Tudor, afterwards Henry VII., and Margaret of Anjou and Prince Edward, and finally the stronghold that Colonel William Owen, the ancestor ot the present Lord Harlech, held against the Cromwellians for a whole year-and then was the last to tall of all the Royalist castles. At the Holyhead National Eisteddfod the Welsh League ot Nations Union will hold its over-seas re- ception, which has, year by year, grown in popular- ity with tiiose visiting the Eistedufod from beyond Iiiaj seas. Un the Friday morning of the Eisteddfod week the Union of the Welsh National Societies will also welcome the visitors. The "Oymry ar Wasgar" moveiuient, ot which .Meiriona is the secretary, is hoping to become more firmly established as the re- sult of its activities at HoljMiead. Replies from the more distant .parts of the earth aie now being received to the Weish children's wire- less message sent out on Goodwill Day, May 18th. The .lollowing response is one of a number of replies Irom Brazil :We, the pupils of Collegio Bennett, wish to express omr immense appreciation of the message ot .peace and goodwill which was broad- casted to us by the girls and boys of the Principality of Wales. We also wish to tell you about the en- thusiasm that hag been aroused among us, and that we intend to join with our prayers and our influence in this movement for the future safety of the world." —(Signed), Student body of Collegio Bennett, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. NATIONAL. The National Eisteddfod of 1928 was 'proclaimed' on July 7th on Pentwyn, the hillside above Treorchy. It was the Rhondda's first Gorsedd, and although the weather was not too kind, the ceremony attrac- ted manv thousands of people. Elfed, the Arch- druid, with his chaplet of laurel and his golden breastplate, conducted the Gorsedd with dignity, while the Herald Bard (Captain Geoffrey Orawshay) is to be congratulated on the success which has attended his zeal for reform. There was a children's choir placed just outside the Gorsedd circle. Nothing in the proclamation was more effective than the singin"- ty the children of the responses in the Gorsedd prayer. Mr. W. P. Thomas, the hon. general secretary of the Eisteddfod, was warmly complimented on the excellence of the arrange- ments. Gwili, the crowned bard, referred as other bards did. to the work of "W.P. Heddwch, ar ol cyllOeddi-a fyddo'n Feddig da Treorci Na chaed malltod ail-godi A dyblu poen "*W.P." It was Elfed's last proclamation as Archdruid. His four vears tenure of office expires at Holyhead, when it is likely that Pedrog will be unanimously chosen as his successor.