Cylchgronau Cymru

Chwiliwch trwy dros 450 o deitlau a 1.2 miliwn o dudalennau

picture was sold for 2150, and then in 1872 it was sold for £ 2,300. In 1876 its price dropped to £ 1,995, and in 1882 it was bequeathed with thirty- three other Cox oil paintings to the Museum and Art Gallery by Mr. Joseph H. Nettlefold. This painting was exhibited in Manchester in 1887, Nottingham 1910-12, and at Wembley in 1925. All the other pictures of Welsh subjects are undated. In 1912 Mr. Anthony Rowse presented to the Art Gallery a water colour which he had bought from the F. A Brown Sale under the title of "Dolgelley Bridge." This picture is now No. 281, "The Vale of the Llugwy." Of the rest of the pictures "The Junction of the Llugwy and the Conway" is the most outstand- ing. This is No. 1099, and even the reproduction THE COLOUR PROBLEM IN WALES Sir,-Captain Rafael Inda who wrote the article, The World Meets in Wales on Christ- mas Eve," reminds one of the fact that Wales is still without a Joseph Conrad, for here is an aspect of Welsh life which has been sadly neglected. For it is across the sea that Wales must look for her livelihood, and Wales is essen- tially a sea-going nation. A Lime-house Nights could be written of Bute Town, Cardiff. Something on these lines is the novel, Once to Tiger Bay," by W. H. Townsend. Once to Tiger Bay there came a sailor, Once to Tiger Bay there came a girl." But whilst this sort of thing is very pleasant from a literary point of view, there is certainly a grim and realistic problem to be faced-the colour problem, a civic, a national, an inter- national problem. In the square mile or so of Bute Town, Cardiff, there is a hybrid, floating population of three thousand, composed of some of the worse ele- ments under the sun. One has only to spend a day in the Law Courts to witness the daily procession of Maltese and Somalis, Chinamen and Malayans, Russians and Kaffirs, Spaniards and Dagoes, Italians and Egyptians, Swedes and Greeks, p-ostitutes and beachcombers brought into the dock to answer charges of razor slashing and assaults on the police, drunkenness and disorderliness, gambling and running or frequenting disorderly houses, landing without passports, tobacco and dope smuggling, stealing and stabbing. in the Art Gallery catalogue of David Cox's works reveals some of the beauty of the composition. Other pictures bear such titles as "The Road to Snowdon," "The Lledr Valley," "The Pass of Llanberis," "Pandy Mill," "Welsh Crags," Welsh Cottages," "Welsh Moors," "Welsh Farm," "Welsh Glen," and "Welsh Bridge." Cox died in 1859, but his fame has gone on growing. Wales can be gratified that it is linke 1 up with the homage paid to the English artist who made Wales his happy hunting ground. Birmingham people, too, can be gratified to think that in their art gallery they have gems of Welsh scenery preserved by a master painter, to help them to forget for a time their murky sur- roundings and to transport themselves in imagi- nation to the beautiful little Principality. CORRESPONDENCE Half-caste children, the result of illicit and legal unions, are multiplying with alarming rapidity, and according to the Chief Constable's estimate there are now upwards of five hundred half-caste children in the infamous Tiger Bay and Nigger Town districts, children for whom there is little or no prospect of employ- ment on account of their demi-monde character- istics, either on land or sea, children shunned and despised by thoroughbred whites, yellows, and blacks. It is estimated that there are at this moment upwards of two thousand unemployed coloured sailors Mohammedans, Maltese, Senegalese, Lascars-at Cardiff Docks, some of whom receive the dole, some the guardians' relief, some who are dependent on the religions charity of the boarding house keepers for their daily bread and their nightly shelter. At the same time, as the Chief Constable states in one of his latest reports, "Aliens, de- ported from other cities, such as Manchester and Sunderland, find a haven in Cardiff, and when a combing out is made in the underworlds of Mar- seilles, Hamburg, Genoa, and other European ports, aliens flee to Cardiff and manage to land with and without the permission of the immigra- tion officer." It is noticeable, too, that more and more Africans are penetrating into the city and the surrounding valleys to seek employment, al- though there are 29,000 registered unemployed in Cardiff alone. There is a little colony of coloured men near Pengam, in the Rhymney Valley, jokingly referred to as Little Africa." In a big seaport there is always the problem of white girls being lured or drifting into association