The London Welshman

Notes of the Week. Disestablishment. — Another Convert.—The General Election with its marvellous and unique results so far as Wales is concerned, is already carrying some effect upon Conservative thought in the Principality. Colonel Pryce Jones, tne late member for the Montgomery Boroughs, and one of the most stalwart Conservatives in the thirteen counties, delivered a remarkable speech at Machynlleth, on Thursday last. Whether he would have spoken in the same vein had his own contest and those in which other candidates of the same hue were engaged turned out differently, is another matter. Perhaps not. Such an unequivocal and unanimous expression of opinion as Wales has given must teach some- thing to all who possess even ordinary sense. Colonel Pryce Jones declared that if returned to Parliament he would have voted for popular control of all schools, and the abolition of all religious tests in the appointment of teachers, the giving of undenominational religious instruction and the granting of facilities to the ministers of all religions to teach their own particular creed as the parents wished it, in or out of school hours." Delete the two words in, or," and you have the Liberal and Noncon- formist claims, claims as exact as they can be expressed. Colonel Pryce Jones also expressed himself in favour of Disestablishment, without Disendowment. He had been of that opinion for many years, but as a member of the last Conservative Government, and as a Conservative candidate at the last election, he could not vote for it so long as it was not acceptable to the party." He advised his party to approach the matter in a spirit of compromise and to concede Disestablishment, for he believed that until it was settled they would never have peace and contentment in Wales. Now all this, from a Conservative point of view, is a large concession, and when a leader of the party in Wales speaks in such a manner, it is becoming pretty clear that the coming fight will only be a fight for terms. We quite agree with Colonel Pryce Jones that there will not be peace in Wales until there is complete religious equality. Once that is granted the country will be in a position to start afresh, and we are thoroughly convinced that the Disestablished Church will gain enor- mously in strength. Nonconformity will gain but very little, if any at all, but the nation will be stronger and richer in every sense. Closer Friendship.—The visit of about eighty members of the L.C-C. to Paris as the guests of the Municipal Council of that city, seems to have passed off remarkably well. Frenchmen can act the hosts unto perfection, and they had evidently made up their minds that their English guests should have no shadow of a cause to complain. The welcome was most royal, and the people of Paris were as delighted to do honour to their visitors as the Councillors them- selves. All this must help to foster the growing friendship between England and France. International sympathy and goodwill depend more upon the people of different nations than upon their rulers. Treaties and alliances are all right in their way, and meetings of Monarchs and Presidents arranged or by accident often have good effects. But it is the people that decide the question whether nations shall live in peace or at enmity. For too long a period the British and the French were jealous of each other, and that state of mind "made the task of peace-loving rulers often very difficult. All that is past and gone now, and we may confidently look forward to a long spell of mutual trust and goodwill. And whilst these two neighbours understand each other the peace of Europe is pretty secure. Play Before Work.-On Tuesday the new Parliament met to elect a Speaker, and on Wednesday, after his election had been con- firmed by His Majesty the King, the swearing in of members began. The real work of Parliament does not begin until Monday, when the King's Speech will be read. On the opening of every Session, and especially of a new Parliament, a certain number of our legislators are possessed by the spirit of playfulness. There is a competition for honour of being first to enter the House of Commons. It is a rule that the door of the chamber shall not be opened until after Big Ben has struck the hour of midnight, but from that time onward they are ajar, and any member may enter. Before twelve o'clock on Monday night, about fifty senators had assembled at the door of the House, and as soon as it was opened, in they scrambled helter skelter like a flock of sheep going in or out of the fold. It is not difficult to understand the desire of new members to enter the guarded chamber at the earliest possible moment, but that elderly men, like Sir Wilfrid Lawson, and Sir Alfred Thomas for instance, whose very bones have been saturated by the House.of Commons atmosphere, should go down to that House between twelve and one on a cold February morning to take part in a scramble for the door, is a mystery that passes the comprehension of a plain layman. It is only just to those fifty senators to say that they went home to bed after depositing their cards in the receptacles at the backs of the seats they wished to occupy when the House met at two o'clock in the afternoon. One Welsh member turned up at the unearthly hour of 4.15. We wonder how he managed to wake up so early. Or was it a case of sitting up all night ? If so, why didn't he put in an appearance, like the others, at twelve or half past, and like a sensible man return to his warm nest. Surely the ways of legislators are unscrutable.

GWYL DEWI. Mae Cymry Llundain wedi trefnu i ddathlu coffa Dewi Sant trwy gynhal gwledd fawr yn yr Hotel Cecil ar y iaf o Fawrth. Y mae pwyllgor arbenig wedi ei ffurfio i drefnu'r wledd, a disgWylir torf o wyr blaenaf y genedl yno. Deallwn fod mwyafrif yr Aelodau Seneddol wedi addaw bod yn y wledd, ac y mae sibrwd fod cais yn cael ei wneyd er sicrhau presenoldeb y Prif Weinidog hefyd. Disgwylir y manylion erbyn yr wythnos nesaf, ond yn y cyfamser cadwer y dyddiad yn agored, ac os am sicrhau tocynau goheber ar fyrder a Mri. Arthur Griffith neu J. Owain Evans, 18, Wilton Road, Victoria, S.W.

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