1941-09-03 — Page 39

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THE CHINA MAIL, SEPTEMBER 3, 1941.

CHINA MAIL

WINDSOR HOUSE

ANOTHER YEAR

In accordance with the

wishes of His Majesty the King, next Sunday, as the first to follow to-day's an- niversary of the outbreak of war, is to be observed as a Day of National Pray- er and Thanksgiving. It is fitting that this should' be so for if the task that lies ahead is likely to be long and arduous, calling for every capacity of en- durance, in perils and pit- falls that have been sur- mounted there is much to be thankful for.

We enter upon the third year of the war in a far more comfortable posi- tion than the most opti- mistic observer could have predicted in September, 1940. The Battle of Brit- ain had not then reached its pinnacle of ferocity. By the end of October the R.A.F. had triumphantly conquered. Hitler's New

Year boast that "1941 will bring consummation of the greatest victory in our

Teheran

THE BLITZ BOYS — THAT WERE !

history sounds today The Welsh Stand Fast

like prattling paranoic. He has had his further victories in bat- tle. The Libyan Desert has been recovered, Greece and Yugoslavia have been overrun, Crete came to

"WELL. that's the end of Ben | Welsh

Evans's." The speaker was it Welsh woman in the centre of a small crowd looking at the ruins of what had been one of the best- known stores in Swansea.

"Yes, indeed it's bad," said an- other. Twas there I had my first shop-made dress as a little girl. What a pity! But never mind. Let us be thankful it wasn't thing more important."

life

Discussion Federation. is heard on its streets., Miners Hence, when the Germans de- quickly turned to the war issue, the centre of Swansea and it soon became apparent that not about stroyed they struck at a memorable place they were uncertain, in Welsh life. Great as was the the justification for the war, but conflict ends damage, it has not diminished the whether when the determination of the local people the promises, of.. social readjust-

ments will be honoured. shock the British people

to carry on.

National life in Wales is not as once more to the painful

As at Swansea, so at Cardiff,

of seriously af-sharply divided into planes slowness of the democra-

the raids have not

of the social status as in England, so the some-fected the general tic method in mobilising

people. "Lumme, we won' get opinion of the common people any grub there to-day," was the plays a greater role in the forma its effort. Despite these

comment thankfulness only

from a grouption of national sentiment; Nor do studied the de- the. Welsh people suffer from lack heavy setbacks, Britain's that things are not quite as bad which recently

As Celts their position in the Middle as they might be was prevalent struction of the popular Carlton of expression. Their viewpoint is.

Nor have easily obtained. East has been enormously among the Swansea population as Cafe in Queen Street.

it strolled idly through the de- these raids greatly diminished the emotional nature allows them to Wales to wander to heights and depths strengthened in the last bris-strewn streets, commenting contribution of South

generally avoided by the Anglo- Saxon. twelve months. Two great on the havoc wrought. The mid- dle of this town has been turned Italian armies have dis- into a desert, with charred walls integrated, dangerous de-standing amid the wreckage of what once had been prosperous velopments in Iraq, Syria business houses, shops, offees, schools. Swansea's and Iran have been swift- homes, and

market, a favourite landmark to

feeling of This

Cardiff is a

than

By J. Emlyn Williams

ly dealt with- and convert- earlier generations, was the centre éd to our

enormous ad- of this devastation.

finer city vantage. The crucial turn-

national emergency. War ing-point came when Hit- Swansea, but Swansea is nearer to

the heart of the, Welsh-speaking the

Cardiff is cosmo- production still continues at full ler swung away from the Welshman.

politan-"not really Welsh, some-pressure, smoke pours forth from doubtful prospect of a how and unless spoken by factory chimneys, stores are full successful invasion of the "people from the valleys" little of customers; and on the near-by waters of the Bristol Channel ships small and big still wend their way to ports in Devon or to the end of the earth.

sical damage is the most serinus

Call it immature judgment if

im you will, but to both the

rally minded Welshmen, and those less ready to compromise,

be more ex-. there appeared to pediency than morality in the British official attitude which led. 10 war. A well-known young Welshman told me in North Wales recently that "Appeasement was so purely English, so contrary to Welsh tradition, that it made us despair."

are

active support of Russia, complished nothing ex- there has been a great outcry for their curricula

Unemployment, with ap-official evacuees. accommodate

parently little justification

ex- themselves