Cylchgronau Cymru

Chwiliwch trwy dros 450 o deitlau a 1.2 miliwn o dudalennau

VOLUME XVI WELSH OUTLOOK WE write before the returns of the General Election are quite complete. The results of about a dozen contests have yet to come in. But the political situation is clear enough for the daily press to describe it picturesquely as a "stalemate." The metaphor is unsound. "Stalemate" is a position in the game of chess where no move at all can be made. So long as patriotism and the nation's needs come first, no such position is possible in Parliament. There are always moves to be made, problems to be solved, things to be done. He who dubs this a stalemate Parliament is first and foremost a party man, and is surveying the situation through party spectacles. It is not a stalemate parliament. It is a Safety First Par- liament. Mr. Baldwin has got what he asked for, though his slogan has been interpreted in a way he did not expect. Socialists, Conserva- tives, Liberals-each of the three represents a minority of the electorate. The country has decided that no party shall have supreme power. Whoever holds the reins of government must therefore steer a middle course. If he deviate from that course, he will lose the reins. And this means that if he is to survive he must do those things for which he can find support out- side his own ranks, common-sense things, things men of all parties want and need. Such things there are in plenty, and our politicians, if they are statesmen and not marionettes, will set about doing them, Where there is no vision the people perish NOTES OF THE MONTH THE JUNE 1929 APART from the situation created in Par- liament, the election was important for the evidence it provided of the growing public interest in international affairs. There was a time, not very long ago, when the voter thought of foreign policy only when a crisis arose. Now it is different. We have always held that our politicians have underestimated the depth and constancy of the public's desire for action to secure peace. The election proved it. Candidates found, to their surprise, that an allusion to Locarno roused enthusiasm, while fourpence-off-tea left electors cold. Much as Sir Austen Chamberlain has done at Geneva, a sur- prising number of his constituents thought he should have done more, and he had a narrow escape from rejection in a Conservative strong- hold. Even Mr. Lloyd George, intent on his unemployment scheme, found it advisable as the election proceeded to give more and more import- ance to matters like disarmament and the optional clause. Audiences, in their questions and by their demeanour, demanded that attention be paid to international policy, and the demand was hammered home by the excellent work of organi- zations like the League of Nations Union and (especially in Wales) the Women's Peace Council. We believe that had any party pro- duced as its main proposal a reasoned pro- gramme for emphatic support to the League of Nations and the cause of peace, that party would have captured a larger share of votes (women's NUMBER VI