March 1
To tell the story of Wales, whose patron Saint's Day this is, think of Welsh music and song. Whether the original inhabitants of Britain were considered by suecessive invaders to have been conquered or reduced to their proper state of wild seclusion beyond the frontier of Western England, the fact remains that to-day those hardy folk number over 2,500,000 they still assert their supreme con-trot over their own delightful country, they maintain their own literature and culture and they Ihave managed to link their royal house with the House of Windsor which is itself the link between the nations of a mighty Empire. [And they share with Scotland the privilege of supplying to that Empire an undue proportion of guiding statesmanship. So St. David is well served by the people who now acclaim his memory, It is indeed a remarkable faculty British polity to be able to absorb so many different races and yet allow individual cultures even of numerically small units" to Gevelop and flourish. Welsh is no dead language. Welsh newspaper: testify to that fact and Welsh songs are the living expression of the present life of the people. sides being eloquent of the glorious beauty of the mountains, valleys and rocky coasts of the turdines that it, great measure, protects the rich counties of England from the fierceness' of direct contact with the Atlantic. "And the valour of Welsh soldiers has shown that, in the common task of protecting the British Isles or the Empire Itself from the King's enemies, the oldest nation within the British Commonwealth is fully competent. And, even those who are disinclined to applaud all his vigorous vehemence of argument, will be di posed to agree that Wales has reason to be proud of the place which her most famous statesman has filled and still fills in British polities. David Lloyd George is nothing if he is not Welsh. And he would not be Welsh if he sought exclusively the easy path of acquiescence, Shanghai Welsh meet to-day under the presidency of esteemed member of the profession to which the community, irrespective of class or creed, is specially indebted. They can declare that their nationals play an important part in the life here. The British Minister in Peiping Is himself of Welsh descent.
The Supreme Court in Shanghai has Welsh learning on the berth where it often has to cope with Welsh eloquence from the Bar. 'The Municipal Council is not tacking in the same valuable ingreclient to strengthen its internation-jai administration. This great port is not unmindful, too, of the prominence of Welsh' brains and brawn on the ships which bring tu it and carry from it trade with the world. Shanghai's interest Wales is many-sided and it will not be forgotten by followers of the game which makes Wales famous in sport that the President the Shanghai Rugby Union Football Club not long ago ventured to proffer military advice to the British Government by urging it to take an early opportunity of sending a good rugger battalion here. That, of course, might have meant reference to a certain famous Yorkshire Regiment. But same there are who maintain that Mr. Burkill was thinking of any one of three Welsh regiments whose prowess is hardly less distinguished. This is an appropriate aside in a season when the (Continued on page 366.)
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.