Cylchgronau Cymru

Most of the autonomous Miners' Councils in the coalfield offered single scholarships, and fifteen students went from South Wales. Among these were Aneurin Bevan, James Griffiths, Will Coldrick, Ness Edwards, Bryn Roberts, and Theo. Griffiths, all destined to play some part in British politics. Each year, up to 1927, the South Wales miners sent some dozen or more students to the College for the two-year residential course, and on their return to the coalfield they played an active part both in the classes and in the miners' union. The organization of the evening classes into the National Council of Labour Colleges, and its separation from the residential college, gave rise to conflicting demands on the depressed financial resources of the trade unions. The causes which led to the closing of the college receive bad treatment from Craik. The failure of the T.U.C., the latent suspicions about the nature of the teaching by the older men, the concentration of the N.C.L.C. on its own needs, the personal failings of men who ought to have known better, were all factors leading to the closure. But, basically, the Central Labour College was a victim of the General Strike. The depression, the disillusionment, the unemployment, and the revenge of the coalowners took the 'guts' out of the movement, and with it went the financial resources. Thus ended an institution which, in its short life, made a most profound impact on British politics. Craik, in his description of the closure, should have remembered that the 'ifs' of history are for the novelist not for the historian. However, it is all to the good that this account of the Central Labour College has been made, so that the student of Welsh industrial history will know whence came the ideas that dominated South Wales in the first quarter of this century. NESS EDWARDS. House of Commons. We offer our apologies to Dr. W. John Rowe of the University of Liverpool for having inadvertently described him as J. M. Rowe in our previous number (ante, II, 290). DADENI, DIWYGIAD, A Diwylliant CYMRU. Gan Glanmor Williams. Gwasg Prifysgol Cymru, Caerdydd, 1964. Tt. 31. 3s. 6ch. Y mae'r llyfryn hwn yn llawer pwysicach na'i faint. Fe saif gydag erthygl Mr. Saunders Lewis yn Efrydiau Catholig, ii, ac eiddo'r Athro G. J. Williams yn Lien Cymru, iv, fel un o'r ymgeisiau mwyaf treiddgar hyd yma i roi cyfrif am rai o syniadau a chymhellion dyneiddwyr Cymreig yr unfed ganrif ar bymtheg a'r ail ar bymtheg. Fe welir ynddo yr un ddawn gyfosod eithriadol a honno a roddodd inni orchest y Welsh Church