THE DEATH OF LITERATURE

Evening Post, Volume CXVIII, Issue 78, 29 September 1934, Page 25

THE DEATH OF LITERATURE

Tf F it is true that'the literary standard of the Eisteddfod is J|_ below that of the years before the war it is worth while asking what is the effect of war on the talent of a.nation," said Mr. Lloyd George, speaking at the Welsh Eisteddfod. "Rupert.Brooke died in the War before fulfilling his promise. A shepherd from Merioneth, Hedd Wyn, won the'empty chair at ■the Birkenhead Eisteddfod. He fell on the Sommel Wales lost in the War 40,000 young men in the days of their strength: before coming into sight of the land of their promise—more men than Llewellyn the Great or Owain Glyndwr ever had behind them in their greatest days; more men than Wellington had at Waterloo. "One of the worst things about war is the destruction of talent, the destruction of scholarship and of leadership of the new generation. No one knows how much Britain, France, Germany, arid Russia lost in the war; millions of men whose possibilities no one can tell were killed. .'.;.■.-. "To get some idea of what war can do imagine.for a moment that Shakespeare and Milton and Shelley and Keats-and Byron and Browning were forced to go to war and were killed before writing a line. Think of Pantycelyn and Howell; Harris and Daniel Rowlands arid John Wesley conscripted to the wars, of their day and cut. down." .