The London Welshman

Gohebiaethau. [Nid ydym mewn un modd yn gyfrifol am syniadau ein gwahanol ohebwyr., To the Editor of THE LONDON WELSHMAN." SIR,—In fairness to the London Welsh party who gave the concert at Llangeitho in August last, and also to the London Welsh Choir, may I be permitted to reply to "Hen Wladwr's" letter in your paper two or three weeks ago. To judge from the tone of his letter and his apparent lack of humour, this Welshman must be a Scotchman (as an Irishman would say). Anybody reading "One of them's" letter without prejudice would see that the whole thing was a skit," and nothing of the nature of an insult was intended by the words complained of, viz., hardened and uncultured. The writer, however, in spite of his assumed name, was not one of us at all, so far as the Llangeitho trip was concerned He was, I believe, present at the concert. Neither is he a member of the London Welsh Choir, nor the Male Choir. He is not in any way connected with these organizations. Reading between the lines, however, Hen Wladwr," hiding his identity under a nom de plume, seems to have seized this opportunity to make a ridiculous attack upon the London Welsh Choir He evidently knows nothing of its history, because the London Welsh Choir has never yet competed in any Eisteddfod. He is mistaking it for the London Welsh Male Voice Choir, presumably that is the choir he has a grievance against, I think. I never knew before that we were so conceited, but we certainly are proud of our past achieve- ments. I will also admit that it is taking a number of London Welshmen, outside the choir and its friends, some time to grasp the fact that we have done very well. In fact we are much better thought of in South Wales than we are in London, especially judging from the magnificent reception we got at Mountain Ash National, both before and after we sang. We generally are very well placed in the adjudication. At Mountain Ash we were only just behind the two parties which shared the 1st and 2nd prizes. Mr. Divid Evans, Mus. Bac., one of the adjudicators, told us so himself, and another musician, a musical doctor, told a number of us that he was very glad he was not one of the judges, as the singing was so good and that it was merely a matter of opinion which of these choirs, the two winners and the London Welsh, gave the best ren- dering. In fact we were the only other choir except the two winners mentioned in the adjudication. This may be news to our friend Hen Wladwr." At the Albert Hall Eisteddfod, last winter, we were a very good second to Aberdare, and at Swansea on Bank Holiday, 1904, we shared second prize with Rhymney (one of the two winners at Mountain Ash), beating the famous Manchester Choir, Southport and Resolven (the other winner at Mountain Ash). On Easter Monday, 1903, at the same town, we won the 1st prize, £60, against the cream of South Wales parties and a year later came second again. Not such a bad record, and a very consistent one, I venture to think. So far as the Llangeitho party is concerned, we were only a very small section indeed of the London Welsh Choirs, who happened to be in the neighbourhood of Aberystwyth on their holidays, and all of them except myself were connected with Cardiganshire. Many more had promised to join us from other parts of the county, but the weather was far too bad for them to start. We enjoyed everything immensely, the scenery in- cluded, except the rain. We will not forget the kindness shown us at Cwrtmawr (where everything was done to make us comfortable) and also by the people of Llangeitho, against whom Hen Wladwr" seems to think we bear a grudge. On the contrary, we were delighted with them. Our little band of artistes did their best under any but favourable circumstances, and the audience (which suffered numerically for similar reasons as we did) received them enthusiastically and were very appreciative. Apologising for intruding upon your space, I am, Sir, Yours faithfully, E. A. JONES. 52, Threadneedle Street, E.C.

AT EIN GOHEBWYR. MARCI-IOGION Y FORD GRON."—Gan nad ymddir- iedasoch i ni eich enw priodol a'ch cyfeiriad i'r fasged yr aeth yr eiddoch. "ANNIE GWIN."—Nis gallwn gyhoeddi pcnnillion cyfarchiadol ond fel hysbysiad. TO STOCK FARMERS. "I THE MATABELE REEFS AND ESTATES COMPANY, LIMITED. GWANDA RAILWAY SYNDICATE LIMITED. RHODESIA CONCESSIONS, LIMITED.

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