THE MISSION OF THE CELT

Evening Star, Issue 19924, 21 July 1928, Page 14

THE MISSION OF THE CELT

A GREAT CULTURE MR LLOYD GEORGE EXTOLS THE KILT A CALL TO THE HIGHLANDS. In opening last month a fote at Ness Castle, a few miles from Inverness, Mr Lloyd George said he was delighted to meet his fellow Celts on a purely non political occasion. “I am something ol » politician,” he said. “Politicians seem to be doomed to spend the whole of their ivcs in conflict with some section or another of their follow creatures. A soldier has a long respite, fortunately ; there are long intervals where ha is at pcnc* with his fellow-men. But a politician never. I really am very relieved tc find myself in an assembly where I am able to associate myself with them without feeling it is my duty to bash any of them on the head. (Laughter.) I crossed these Islands to come here from the Atlantic Ocean to the North Sea through lands which, on the whole, the Celtic races have hold for traditions and kin—mostly mountainous regions. “ We were driven from the flat lands, because they were flat, to the mountains. They had the rich plain. Wo defended die grandeur and the splendour of the beauty of these Islands, and wo have held them against every attack for thousands of years—Wales, Cumberland, Westmoreland, and the Highlands of Scotland. We resisted the Romans, the Saxons, Danes, and Norsemen, and wo are being assailed by a much larger and formidable and insidious Empire, the Empire of tho Philistines ILaughter.) That is tho greatest danger of all to the Celtic culture and traditions in this Empire. “In Wales we are putting up a great fight for Celtic culture. We have got in that small part of the Island about one million people who habitually use the Welsh tongue and tho Welsh harp. I was reckoning up the other dav the number of Welsh weekly and monthly periodicals. There are fortyseven published in the Welsh language ( Cheers. > lam confident they pay, because printers are not philanthropists. It is a real live language. THE PMCHI Ul> THE GAELIC “ 1 venture to say from .ry acquaintance with poetry to-day that there is no better poetry written than ihat by the cultured young Welshmen. Welsh culture is a real live thing Wo are not dealing merely with memories of the past. We are turning out new literature worthy to rank with the finest literature ot Europe to-day. Wo are putting up a fight for the language of the Celt, for the traditions of the Celt, and for the mission and tho message which the Celt has for humanity. “ I do not know what you are doing in the Highlands, fam sorry your picturesque dress is disappearing. There is nothing that provides for mo better argument for women’s suffrage than the fact that women had the sense to annex it for themselves. (Laughter.) The language is not quite holding its own from all I hear, but you are boginning to put up a fight. In Wales we are not treating the language as if it was something we are ashamed of. We are proud of it. Wq are proud of the great expression it has given through the centuries to the deepest and noblest sentiments of the human heart. We are proud of the service that it has rendered to humanity, and we mean to stand by it against all who may assail it. 1 want to see the Highlands do the same.

“ In Ireland they arc making a great effort to revive the old Cdtic culture. It is a real heroic effort, and I trust the Highlands will do the same. The Celt must get rid of his inferiority complex. L remember very well when I entered the House of Commons wo had a number of young Welshmen, all speaking the Welsh tongue. I have no recollection that it interfered witn their national success. They addressed their constituents as fluently and effectively in the Welsh language as they did in the English, and there was ono great advantage: the reporters c«uld not take down what they were saying. (Laughter.) “ One of them, Sir Samuel Evans, became one of the most eminent judges of his day. Three or four others held honourable positions of the Crown, and ono of them, I am told, became Prime Minister of the country. (Laughter and cheers.) I have no doubt ho has many deficiencies, but no man is bound to incriminate himself. (Cheers.) But at any rate he never found the Welsh language stood in his way. Some of the most successful men ip commerce, industry, and law are bilingual Welshmen. It is an intellectual training. “ A TARTAN OF RACES.” “This is not an attempt to split the British Islands into a number of conflicting races. That is not the point. We are just as attached to the British Empire as any Saxon, Dane, or Scandinavian. We feel we have as great a share in its inheritance as anyone else, and when the country is in peril wo rally to the common flag. But it lends strength,' variety, and picturesqneness to have u variety of colours, each adapted to the particular rre a where it is grown. Vou don’t want a forest of the same trees. “Great Britain is a tartan of races. (Cheers.) I have yet to Icvm that the texture is weaker because it is tartan. It is not only variety of quality, but of colour, that is wanted Just imagine if the whole world were ono colour how sick you would get of that colour The most distinctive colours in this country are the Celtic ones. Don’t imagine that by making imitation Englishmen out of Welshmen, Irishmen, and Highlanders yon ere uniting and strengthening the Empire. You are weakening it. “There is nothing that makes such an abiding impression on the human mind as mountain scenery. My appeal to you is not as a politician, but as a Celt who believes in tradition and the mission and message that the Celt has for the world at large. That started long before the first political party was ever born, a message that will survive when the last of them will have disappeared. It is because 1 believe in that that I am making an appeal as a Welsh Celt to the Celts of the Highlands to stand by our great traditions and our task in this world.” (Cheers.) Mrs Lloyd George, who was qn the platform, was presented with a beautiful silk cushion on behalf of the promoters of the fete, which was held in aid of the Inverness Mod. The Mod is on the same lines as the Welsh National Eisteddfod.