TOLL OF THE WAR

Evening Post, Volume CXVIII, Issue 102, 27 October 1934, Page 24

TOLL OF THE WAR

"If it is true that theliterary standard of tho Eisteddfod is below that of tho years before tho 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.

"Eupert Brooke died in the war before fulfilling his promise. A shepherd from Merioneth, Hedd Wyn, won tho empty chair at the Birkenhoad Eisteddfod. He fell on tho Somme. Wales lost in the war 40,000 young men in the days of their strength before coming into, sight of tho land of their promise —more men than Llewellyn tho Great or Owain Glyndwr over had behind them in their greatest days; more than Wellington had at Waterloo.

"One of the worst things about war is the destruction of talent, tho destruction of scholarship and of leadership of the new generation. No ono knows how much Britain, France, Germany, and Eussia 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 lino. Think of Pantycelyn and Hdwell, Harris and Daniel Rowlands and John Wesley conscripted to the wars of their day and cut down."