WELSH FLAG INCIDENT

King Country Chronicle, Volume XXVI, Issue 3440, 8 March 1932, Page 5

WELSH FLAG INCIDENT

EXPLANATION BY MINISTER. A REGRETTABLE INCIDENT. 9 (Press Association. —Copyright.) (Received 12.50 p.m.) London, March 7. In the House of Commons, Mr. Ormsby-Gore, First Commissioner of Works, in answer to a question, said the decision to fly the Red Dragon flag on one tower of Carnarvon Castle and the Union Jack on the other was made in 1922, after consultation with Mr. Lloyd George, who was then Constable of the Castle and Prime Minister. „ This decision was accorded with advice from the Carnarvon Town Council before affecting the change, and he was now consulting with Mr. Lloyd George and the Mayor of Carnarvon. The Minister said he recognised the strong Welsh sense of nationhood, but he would like to correct the misapprehension that the first Prince of Wales was born in the Castle. Its foundations were not then laid. He was aware that the Welsh students last week tore down the Union Jack where it was flown with the Red Dragon in accordance with custom, but he was sure that public opinion in Wales and elsewhere would condemn that act. The Government had decided to ignore the regrettable incident.

(A party of Welsh students pulled down the Union Jack from the highest tower of Carnarvon Castle because permission to fly the Welsh dragon flag from the tower in celebration of St. David's Day had been refused. Officials, re-hoisted the Union Jack, but the students again hauled it down and tore it to bits in the Castle square. Ex-servicemen were narrowly prevented from coming into contact with the students and Welsh Nationalists.)