The Cambria Daily Leader

LIGHT IN THE DARKNESS. The most serious obstacle to any pacifist move i6 the profound mistrust of the Entente democratic peoples to- wards the Governments of the Central Empires. We believe and repeat that any pacifist action by the Central Powers will only be successful when Germany and Austria-Hungary, intern- ally transformed, can inspire complete con fide nco in the democratic peoples of the West, If the proposal emanated from democratic Germany, and Austria- Hungary callable of H?suring the liberty of th' peoples, we are certain the peoples of the Entente would not tolerate a refusal. As matters are we can only count upon the failure of our proposition.—" Arbeite? Zei- tung." (Vienna). Last week there were happening in Gomiatiy which may become historic, and over the wires the other day came the message that "the Majority Party have decided to establish a Parliamentary Gov- ernment which shall be absolutely free from the influence of Head- quarters." Can this be done? That previous attempts in demo- cracy have so ignominously failed in Germany does not necessarily Hgue failure in the altered condi- tions of to-day. We are accustomed to see Germany through the lurid; haze of policy and aim of the High Command," forgetting that! all the while there is a Germany! muzzled, tongue-tied, t&rrorised, bound hand and foot, mind, body and soul. Not against, but for that- Germany the, whole civilised world is at. this moment contending. We cannot hold out hopes for a speedy conversion. J The p rocoss of degeneration is likely to be long (said the "New York World on Tuesday), and the hardest fighting of the war is probably still before us. It is realized that Germany has yet to become democratic, and it is expected that until &he does become democratic her armies will obey their leaders and fight the harder the clcesr they are pressed to the wall. But the Chancellor made the key- note of his .Reichstag speech on Tuesday the admission with which 10 opens that deep discontent has seized hold of wide circles of the population. Dr. Karl L/eibnecht, a skiliul and eloquent debater, a University graduate and well read thinker and student, whose father. Dr. William Leibneeht, with August .Bobel, founded the Social Democratic Party, turned out to be one consis- tent Social Democratic politician in Germany on the question of the war. "Let us teach history cor- rectly, he said in a speech, and tell the children tha.t the crime of Sarajevo was looked npen by wider circles in Austria-Hungary <1-s a gilt from Heaven. Let 1IS-" He got no further. The cyclone broke. As Mr. Thomas Curtis, the Ameri- can war correspondent said: "He had dared to do what no other min, in Germany had done. He had publicly accused Germany of mak- ing the war. From that moment his doom was certain." He is. m prison. Herr Mehring, a man over 70 years of age, one of the most bril. liant histori.ane and writers—known as such far beyond the German frontier—is another victim of that system of "preventive arrest" ?; 7)re-,7ellt i  which has produced in Germany a reign of terror. Small wonder that Herr Dittman, a Social Democrat in the Reichstag, on hearing of this incarceration, exploded thus: "How much longer will it be before even thought becomes criminal in Ger- many? How evil mutit be the state of a Government which has to lock up the first minds of the country in order to choke 'their opposition ? The positive duty of Socialists in France, England, Russia and Italy is to fight against a Governmfnt I which imprisons without any rea- sons the beat known champions of the International proletariat." As a peace harbinger the Austro- Hungarian Note is manifestly 'im- possible, a.nd intimation of this im- possibility is the heavy burden laid b t on each, of the Entente Powers. The Note had no doubt its own ob- jective, and was intended to intlu- ence, no,t the Entente Powers, but the internal situation. America is prompt in reply, and decisive. The issue remains quite clear; it is not a "German Peace," but a Pease of a totally different- order that all the; peoples long for eagerly, aud are determined to get.. Count Hertling emphasised he distance between us when on Tuesday, talking of the League of Nations and the protec- tion of small nations, he said with staggering effrontery that "in this matter w-e have an entirely clear conscience. J.i the same sitting of the Keichstag indeed Von Payer, the Deputy' Chancellor said with Teutonic cynicism that he believed the German Government will act more in accordance with its duty if it ciofs not entire-ly forget the old saying, "Try to hola what you have." The gap between Prussianism and Wilsonism is, in essential nature, unbridgeable, but what Count Beventlow said the other day in sarcasm—" that we can have peace to-morrow by accepting Grey and Wilson's League of Nations "—is quite true. Mean- while, the Austro-Hungarian Note must b2 replied to. and there is no reason why it should not be so framed as to carry a message of hope and not of despair !■> the masses of the population both in Germany and Austria-Hungary

I r THE R.I. O. 1 t A STRIKE SCENE AT HIGH- I STREET STATION j R.T.O.'s am a (:Ia,-s ar-)art. Out of the whole Army thoyhave taken upon them- selves the duty of l/i'ing universally pains- taking, kindly and courteous. What a Cook's tourist agent is to a wealthy client, the R.T.O. is to the humblest pri- vate. They should adopt the motto of the Royal Welsh: Net, As pore Terrent (difficulties do not dismay us). Their natural home is France, for there they meet problems worthy of their efforts. P te Blank wearying of hi& cramped position in a cattle truck as the sweat- i nig troop train lay in a fciding half the day hao rushed all to a neighbouring r.ottago tor a cup or coffee to find that he has delayed his toraging expedition by exactly live minutes too long, and returns to eee the tired train slowly moving on. it ha.s done that with him several times and by running he has been able to catch one ot the iast waggons; but this time he is too late. His train has niowd off to its unknown destination, and .he is stranded—an ill the middle of France. Is hdismayed ?ot a bit. i Where's the R.T.O.r No need 01 long e-xplanations. His experience is as old as the war. The R.T.O. sees him housed for the night and the next day Pte. Blank joins his kit at an up litre station, and from there is directed to the B.H.Q., where he tinds that all Jias been explained by the R.T.O. When in difficultie6 whilst travelling ask the H.T.O. Froni generals to privates j all get tiie tame treatment. lIe is the intermediary that explains the way of the Army to the railway people, and in turn sees that no one is punished for the short- comings of the railway. How like I'ranee High-Street Stati. on looked on Tuesday night. Darkened and desolate in the rain, with no trains save the one or two waiting in the darkness a the platform one might think one was waiting in Poperhings for that darkened train that crawls silently up to the bat- tered city of Ypres. in the far corner-a long stream of stranded seedier;, was making gradually for the epofc of light where the H.T.O. m his office was dis- pensing chits that explained that they had been delayed by the. railway 6trike, and advising them as to the 'best means of reaching their destination. First, the men for France were dalt with, then as 8.20 drew near the call went j out for all the men for Pembroke Dock, j I which was abbreviated by the Pembroke [Dock men to "All for and the, Worcester* and others went into the circle of light. j a All the men for Barnes: said a voice I within the room, and immediately the i t anions hattle-cry went out: "Forward the Guards There's a magic about the vsound of The Ouards." 1 lived from the age of ten to seventeen amongst Guards of all conditions—Grenadiers, Scots, Cold- stream and irisii-ii-tim the rawest re- cruits to veteran sergeant-majors; wo joined the Guards after over a year of war. and I was told they would not be like the mi311 I knew; but they were. they were Guards unmistakoable. Marching to the trenches with bands playing and equipment apothvis, in Die trenches cov- ered with mud, and returning to billets with the slow long-legged gait they always adopt on these occasions. Wherever you met; them there was no missing the >"ta- tore, the neatness, and the Guards' touch, j And the tradition persists. On Tuesday night, after over four years of war, no one would have been in doubt as to what regiment it was which those Welsh I Guardsmen—members of the youngest regiment of Guards—belonged. Then came the miscellaneous cases, and the name& of places r:Üsed varied I 'ÚsiQus. AmcsbUl',y, where's that? Oh, I,T,es, you had better go to London if they can't got you through to Salisbury at Cardiff." Amesbur.v in peace time was a pretty village and convcinent station for Stonehenge; now it i? the railhead for those hutment cities of 1 .arkhill and Ro-1- lestone, where, in the Hamilton lines, during the first two winte.6 of war. Aus- tralians and others defied the freezing j cold and blank drearitfess of the Plain in canvass huts. One man handed in a pass ihat did not expire until nest day. Not a suggestion that he was intruding unnecessarily on the time of a busy man, just a Reasoning You-rf, all right; you've nothing to worry about until to-morrow." And so the work went, on; no flurry, never a harsh word, everyone addretoed carefully according to rank, every salute punctiliously returned, as the endléSs string of men in soaking wet great coats passed the table. Surely there must be a school for R.T.O.'s, where all asperities of temper are softened, or is it that powerful factor in the strength of the Army-Tradit.ion r I D. H.I. P.

I CANON M. LINTON SMITH. Canon Martin Linton Smith, S!.A rector of Winwick, Lanes., has been appointed Suffragan Bishop of Warrington, in the dio- cese of Liverpool. Canon M, L. Smith, who ha.1 had a distinguished career, and also re- ceived a decoration for work done as a chaplain in Fr?ace is the eldest son of the VHY Rev. J. Allan Smith, DD.. Dean of St. Dawd's formerly Vicar of Swansea

T HAT REG 1 S T R A R S H-. P The Neath Board of Guardians and the Appointment. Regrading the Margam regis* rarship, Mr. Geo. Griffiths, chairman of the Neath branch of the Welsh National Federation of DifO(harged Sailors and Soldiers, writes: T'iis lamentations of Mr. I. S. Ellis at th? 1¥t me(;tjn of <hf Neath Board of Guardians, aNI at a specially-convoned meeting of the fort Talbot and district branch of ,fhe Discharged Sailors' and Soldiers' Federation, at the National Schools, A bora von. are rather amusing, haiing regard to the facts as contained in the official minutes of the appointment, lind I am convinced that it will require more than a few tMr6 to remove the in- justice of the motion moved by Mr. Ellis, and seconded by Mr W. Tb,,t Miss Beynon be appointed to the post, and that the other applications be not conw-iored which, on being put to the vote, was carried by a majority of one (a trifling majority to contcnd with when the time comes for action). Mr. EUis now says That the ap- pointment did not rest with the Beard: Then why direct the clerk to inform the Registrar-General that Miss E._ R. Bey- non had been elected registrar of births land deaths i'or the Margam sub-district hy the lit, ? Mr. Ellis, offered an opportunity to reply, atate.s that" no amount of abuse will induce him to be drawn into any newspaper controversy during the war. Ho adds however, that the statement in the letter with regard to the voting 1 is iheorrect: 19 voted for Mis* Beynon [ and 12 ag:unst.J

ITOWN TALK. The Bulgars must be wishing that the Serbs will not get much Vardari -:n:- Firewood! What about the logs of J wood being washed up on the beach daily by the tide? —: o: — The public would do well to carefully j ecrtinise new-looking half-crowns when passing money. Seen after the funeral, Mr. Mansel v Franklen, one of the trustees of the late Miss Talbot, said that he had no an- nouncement to make concerning the estate. — :o:— Tiie toll of a stubborn gas stove in the Brynmill district this morning: A box full of matches, hands full of burns, and a fieriei of bangs," and-all to no ac- count. — :0:- Oystermouth Ward haa not yet got itg Bit-Badge and Young Blood candi- dale, but the ex-soldiers and the younger men are not blind to their responsibilities as we may find within the next week or so. —:«:— All the children, of whatever age. in the schools of the Neath Group,, who feci sore over the refusal of the half-holiday for the Neath Fair, are reminded (by a correspondent) that there is a war on. — :0 The man who jumped under his pony trap instead of into it in Wind-street the other morning performed an oxtraor- dinary and involuntary feat which gained for him some amount of applause and a good deal of laughter. — :o:— The Goleuad didn't say whether th deacon who resgined, or the pastor, doubted the Jonah episode, as hitter^. The incident reminds us of the Merfchvr mail who'said he'd believe the story feven if It declared that Jonah swallowed the whale: — ?0 Floreat Swansea! A medical commis- sioner on a recent, visit to the medical board of the town said it was one of the best conducted in the kingdom. And, further, it was amongst the towns which had given the best results from the Army point of view. — rOr-r The auctioneer, tryiing to sell a hrm.-e in Bryu-road, urged that there wa6 no need to worry about coal fit ft, as occu- pants ot the>"e premises could sit in the front windows in the sun, and be suffi- ciently warm. The audience gazed ea-diy at their •vercoate. I V—• o: — About the most superstitious mortal (\11 earth (,wri&es a sporting correspondent) ,Iii tlJ") average racing man. A popular iocal double for the two big back-end I)and"-cal),s-f iip, Cesarewitch and the Cambridgeshire—is He for the former event and Herself for the shorter distance rac.e. —: o: • When one of the Gov.-et farms fell to the tenant, as well as one at Mumbles, the general applause of the audienco al the Cameron yesterday showed that popu- i lar feeling is in favour of the farmer and not the war millionaire who is look" ing for a quiet country seat for his retirox meat. After the mourners had left Margam Church many of the congregation went into tile N-aiilt to &ee tiie last resting place of Mis& Talbot. She is the eighth to IK; placed there—the first being Thomas Man-el Talbot in 1313, and tlia last Miss Olivia Talbot in 189L Thfr vault was electrically lit. A novel sight was oiserved in Union- street tho other evening, when the lata theatre cars were about to start. Tlai }-"oding on! with a full complement o passengers, couldn't get a move on, to the "S.O-.S." was seat out to the one be- hud. which promptly obliged by pushing the front tram up the incline. | Those who read the result of the Kil- vrough estate sale, and saw all that lay between the lines, were able to form a gotid idea of prospective housing schemes. that will be put in hand ws eoon as the war and its effects are done with. W-e may have quite a garden city just behind the cliffs between Bracelet and Eangland. Some folk have a peculiar idea of what würk of national importance means. Many who are exempted on the condition that they perform work of national im- portance, when seen later by the repre- sentatives of the local recruiting I authority, set forth the most grotesque explanations. One man, asked what he was employed at now, said he was dig- King iugworuia ,or local iisbe.rmcu I Another had opened a Üsl1 and vegetable stores. —: re — As to the anxious inquiry of a Town Talkr concerning the harvest mackerei. of former years, the writer is ablo to throw some light upon the matter. Pab" ing a certain piscatorial establishment I on the road between Caerau and Nanty- If y lion on Tuesday evening, he saw a < window lull of them, and all alive a« ) well. Whether the week-end high tide, p'i: so much written ahout, landed them there or not, is a query someone -may be able s to answer. j The Kilvrough estate sale saw some more pheuomenally high prices paid for Gower land. In some of the case6 at the Mumbles, it was clear that building pros- pects had a ghod deal to do with the sums paid, but as to Gower the explanation is that land in the peninsula seldom comes info the market, and sentiment has a lot io do with it. There is a feeling of satis- faction and an incentive for progressive agriculture as well as security of tenure, in all that the term land-owning farmer implies. Added to this. there is always the fear that. this or that field may be taken in the urbanising of our rural areas, and farmers are trying to safeguard their industry. -'0- Mr. J. R. Evans, of Pleasant View, Three Crosses, won the prize at the Three Crosses Eisteddfod for the poem on "The Lost Battalion" (Swansea), Irlwyn being the adjudicator. We quote Sonie of the concluding lines: Wilt thou not pen the deeds of Mametn Wood Wher £ Virtue o'er thy fame dn armour stood Can e'er thy soul forget the glories wrought Which unto thee were dear and oosfcly bought? Can e'er thy lips refrain from soagr and cheer, Thy valour bold, thy stirring scrams to hear? PALMAM QUI 'MERUIT ?E?T." Son of the mi3ts that L the morn, Li?ht of a people': dJ???. fmrs. ], Friend of the nations 1&-Oll forlorn. Our strength and st?y through 'a?M TO-dài¡"io.v() sraPthe ?p?.< That le?ds us to t?c p?roauasd laad. The tyrant knew his burning s £ >m. 0 peaceful heart with ,.r aa?ae: The Monarch ?nd tb? man fo on Quails at the menn? -f h?a?me The clouds portend th?t o'er nLM loom A Kaiser's and s caitiff's docm- The deaths dS on Hovmr's roU Eclipi2 the cries of the sky; Yet srlearos th" valour of that soul Who. lives that En eland not die. A nation s destinv is seafed No loss in Forum' than the Field. And naught could e'er that vision dim. Or star the rnrfose of his hand: Bred in the faith of ,If'alrn and byilln. Of those rude tens ides of liis land. "-clav with jiride the liailf The Tribune from the bill, of lvnl". I 1 Builth Wells. E. THOSSAS.