The London Welshman

Notes from South Wales. (From our Special Correspondent.) A Good Sign. It was a very good sign that Mr. Chamber- lain was losing his temper. His temper was just as bad as his statistics."—Right Hon. D. Lloyd-George. A Good Trio. A feature of the recent social gathering in connection with the Pupil Teachers' Centre at Merthyr was the collective singing of Hen Wlad fy Nhadau," Marseillaise," and "Auld Lang Syne." A Conservative Dodge. The Hon. Devereux had "emblems of Royalty on one of his election cards. But the Breconshire electors saw through this dodge. Brothers in Adversity. Side by side on the hoardings of Cardiff were the flaming posters of the Cardiff Churchmen's Association and the Cardiff Licensed Victuallers' Association. Both appealed to their friends to support the Conservative candidate. Mr. Balfour's Defeat. There was great jubilation at the announce- ment of the ex-Prime Minister's defeat in Manchester. A South Walian remarked that Mr. Balfour would now have more time to read the papers," and play golf. Welsh Review. I hear on good authority that there is a scheme on foot for establishing a Welsh literary review. From what I can understand, the idea is to have a kind of Welsh Spectator or Public Opinion. It will probably be printed in Cardiff. One or two prominent Welsh M.P.'s are credited with being at the back" of what ought to prove a successful venture. Cardiff's New Dock. Great things are expected from Cardiff's new dock, to be opened in the coming summer. I had the pleasure of looking over it the other day, and was struck with its extensiveness. It is being splendidly equipped, and is nearer the deep sea than the other docks of Cardiff. A gentleman interested in shipping told me that he believed that after this new dock was opened a company would be formed with the view of establishing liners after the same style of the Cunard and Allan Lines of Liverpool, and that ere many more years elapsed it would be possible for the public to go to America, as well as New Zealand and Australia, direct from the great Welsh port. Fine Concert at Carmarthen. The concert given at Carmarthen Tabernacle Baptist Chapel on New Year's night by the well- known Mountain Ash Male Voice Party, con- ducted by Mr. T. Glyndwr Richards, was unanimously voted one of the finest musical treats ever given in the ancient capital of Wales The chapel was crammed, between 900 and

WELSH SURVEYOR FOR A LONDON POST. Mr. C. J. Howell Thomas, F.S.I., the estate agent to the Swansea Corporation, has received the important appointment of surveyor to the estates of the Metropolitan Water Board. There were 124 applicants, and the post is one with great possibilities for the future. Prior to his appointment at Swansea, Mr. Thomas was for seven years in the offices of Messrs. Chinnock, Galsworthy, and Chinnock, the well known firm of West End Land Agents and Surveyors, and whilst with them passed his professional examina- tions, being awarded the Driver Prize and the Gold and Silver Medals of the Surveyors' Institution. In March, 1904, he received his present appointment under fche Swansea Corpora- tion, having previously been assisting Mr. W. J. Rees, F.S.I. It may safely be said now that the rental value of the Corporation estate has increased by over £ 2,000 a year within the past 18 months, and this has only been accomplished by courage and good judgment, two qualities possessed by Mr. Thomas in an eminent degree. The properties of the Metropolitan Water Board are considerable and of a most varied description^ comprising grazing and agricultural land, valuable building sites, river wharfage, and other lands in all parts of the Metropolis, in addition to which there are the numerous compensation cases in which that body is frequently concerned. At a recent meeting of the Swansea Corpora- tion, some very eulogistic remarks were made in supporting the following resolution which was carried unanimously That this Council desire to express their regret at the loss of the services of Mr. Howell Thomas, and to record their high appreciation of the excellent and satisfactory manner in which he has discharged the several important duties of the office held by him under this Corporation, and to express the hope that he may attain that success in life to which his merit and ability entitle him." Mr. Howell Thomas will be much missed from Swansea where he is very popular. He is. a keen volunteer, holding a captaincy in the 1st Glamorgan, R.G.A. (V.)

1,000 people being present, including the Mayor and Mayoress and other prominent residents of the locality. Mr. T. Glyndwr Richards amply showed that he has lost none of his conducting abilities, and the way in which the party sang Homeward Bound and The Tyrol" was positively thrilling. The singing of Hen Wlad fy Nhadau" by the assembly fittingly concluded a long-to-be "remembered concert. Welsh Societies. South Wales Welsh. National Societies con- tinue to bloom and thrive. It strikes me that South Wales is far ahead of both North and Mid-Wales in its active furtherance of Welsh National interests and ideals. The Cardiff Cymmrodorion is in splendid trim, and the Cymdeithas Cymreig Abertawe, and the Cymry Caerdydd are both going ahead. The Merthyr Cymreigyddion is another Welsh Society that is full of life and vigour. At its recent meeting, Merthyrfab read a capital paper on "Eben Fardd," and the members passed resolutions congratulating Dyfed on his appointment to the Archdruidship, and the Right Hon. Lloyd- George on his appointment as President of the Board of Trade. The Cymdeithas y Geninen Werdd, Aberdar, and the Cymdeithas Cymreig Casnewydd, are also full of activity, and even the small mining town of Aberfan has now got its Cymmrodorion Society. These are healthy signs, and they should rejoice the heart of every Cymro who loves the dear homeland and its national aspirations. North Wales Snobbery. I am afraid that some of the North and Mid-Wales towns are getting very snobbish. This is especially the case at Aberystwyth, Barmouth, Rhyl, and Llandudno, due, un- doubtedly, to the absurd idea that it is more "respectable" to emulate the whims and oddities of the many visitors from beyond Offa's Dyke, who throng those places in the summer time. There is no Welsh Society at Aberystwyth, and the indifference of its inhabitants may be guaged in the fact that they support a weekly paper which is constantly publishing insulting references to the Cymmrodorion Society and other Welsh organisations. And Again. Neither is there any Welsh Society in Bar- mouth, and, like Aberystwyth, a large number of the local residents apparently think it savours of "ignorance" to speak Welsh. In fact, there is more Welsh spoken in Carmarthen, and twice as much in Merthyr or Aberdare, as there is in either Aberystwyth or Barmouth. I speak from personal experience. Similar remarks are applicable to Rhyl and Llandudno, where many of the people are aping the Brummagem fashion, although, I believe, there is, or used to be, a small Welsh Society in Llandudno. Welsh Patriotism. Of course, in places like Carnarvon, Festiniog, Bala, Corwen, or Denbigh, there is a better Cymric feeling, but even those places cannot boast such live Welsh societies as the South Walians possess. I simply make these observa- tions in order to prove that the oft-made assertion that North Wales is more aggressive in claims for Welsh national advancement than South Wales is not correct. t-- Parliamentary Representatives. In -respect of Parliamentary representatives North Wales has been up to the present, I admit, more patriotic than the South. Whilst North Wales has such fine Welshmen as the Right Hon. Lloyd-George, Mr. William Jones, Mr. Herbert Lewis, Mr. Ellis J. Griffith, and, as I hope, Mr. Clem Edwards and Mr. Idris, a Welsh district like Merthyr and Aberdare has a Scotch Socialist like Mr. Keir Hardie as one of its members. But the fact that Mr. Radcliffe, a Welsh-speaking Welshman, is fighting there in the present election as a Welsh Nationalist, shows that an improvement may be expected in this direction, and that future South Wales M.P.'s will be principally Welshmen of the right kind. In East Glamorgan and the Rhondda, we have also two good Welsh Nationalists in the persons of Sir Alfred Thomas and Mabon, whilst Mr. Tom Richards, in West Monmouth, is another Cymric M.P., of yr iaivn sort. I also hope to. have the pleasure of recording in next week's LONDON WELSHMAN the election of that fine Welsh Nationalist (a second Lloyd-George without a doubt), Mr. Llewellyn Williams, for Carma-then Boroughs, and another good Welsh Nationalist. Col. Ivor Herbert, for South' Mon- mouth. Mr. W. Brace, candidate for South Glamorgan, is also a Welsh-speaking native of Monmouthshire, and, with his probable election as well, it will be seen that the South Wales Nationalist Parliamentary representatives will soon be as prominent as those in North Wales.. So Long! Patriotic Welshmen were highly delighted at the defeat of Mr. Long in Bristol. As Mr. Lloyd-George once remarked, Long always had his knife in Wales." It was he who tried to ride roughshod over the Free Churchmen of Wales with the Tory Government's priests' Education Bill. He is a sadder, and, let us hope, a wiser man to-day. So Long The End of Toryism. I should think that Joseph Chamberlain is now humming sadly to himself the words of the old song Where is now the merry party I remember long ago-o-o Aye lie mae nhw wedi myn'd. I Ebargofiant, mi fentra