A CELTIC ENTENTE CORDIALE.

Otago Witness, Issue 2840, 19 August 1908, Page 82

A CELTIC ENTENTE CORDIALE.

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I The mysterious but powerful wave of revival which ha 6 swept through the smaller nationalities of iJurope during the last half -century, while it has raised a" meaerare of antagonism between* Swedeand Norwegian, Bohemian and German, Mag* yar and Austrian, has yet (writes Mi». 'Alfred P. Greeves) -renewed many -old friendships and awakened memories of half-forgotten relationships. Especially has this been the case here on, the outer fringe of the great continent, where some of its peoples, ' faced V.on the one side by $h& inhospitable," jiftlantic and on the other by increasing. prieWure of "other races, alien tongues, and strange ideals', have found themselves between the devil and the deep sea. It is perhaps not surprising that, thrown' thus into the very vortex or the, struggle - for national existence, the Celtic, peoples | should have manifested a vehemetit . ctef terinination to live, a sudden and vigorous outburst of activity on the part of the national consciousness. It is not surprising that in Wales bard and litterateur should have been working with such compelling vigour that the Welsh people no-nj spend moTe per head upon Welsh reading matter even than the Germans do upon G erman ; that in the Highlands the* charm of legendary sgeul and oran hasf reasserted its sway over thp .Gaelic' mind ; that in Brittany the young peasant') 'fresK from the French barrack Xfom.' or, lower deck, has eet himself to , th.c' fUsourf U sour ! dioceses with open-air repTes,eat'ationa f of I Breton dramas which set fjorih %ift> ; most lurid 1 colours the dangeirspof * ( e^iiigi''ation, of Gallicisation, and of that 'besetting sin of a cider country, "ar vezventi" ;' or that in Ireland the Gaelic ■ League should be working a revolution in the national life on a scale hardly conceivable to one who has not been brought into actual contact with some of ite manyphases. What is a good deal more re"markable is that all .-these movements, differing as they do, and separated as they are by -many barriers, social, political, Teligious, and linguistio, should have been brought into close touch and sympathetic co-operation with one another. That this should have been effected' is" largely due to the work of a body known as the Celtic Association, which has for its president Lord Castletown of TTppen Ossory, and draws its membership from all the countries named, and from Cornwall and the Isle of Man. By means of a r magazine entitled Celtia, which contains I matter in all the five living Celtic languages, in English and in French, th^j association keeps the various literary, dramatic, and language movements in the several countries constantly en rapport, and arranges for combined action whera mutual interests are threatened, or where the strength of all can be breugb-tto the aid of one. It has organised,' t00,,; a series of Pan-Celtic CongrDsees, of which., the first was held at Dublin, the second at Carnarvon, and the third — last year— at ' Edinburgh. These congresses have furnished remarkable spectacles. Presbyterian Highlander and Catholic Irishman, the Breton Jesuit and the staunch member of the Calvinistic Methodist Church of Wales, have gathered • in the happi-e&t unity, finding m a common Celtic tradition, common aspirations and common difficulties in their fulfilment, a bond of unity stronger than the divisions of creed or politics. Linguistically, too, there is a sufficient substratum of knowledge general to all branches of the Celtic rac« to make such meetings of the greatest/, interest. With a little pains Gaelic speakers from Ireland, Man, and the Highlands can make themselves mutually intelligible, and the Welsh and Bretons have idioms so similar that the names of hundreds of articles of everyday use — bara, bread; cig, meat; gwin, wine;, halen, salt, for examples^ — are identical in the two languages. Many members of the association, too, have been to the comparatively 6light trouble required to enable the speaker of one Celtic tongue to acquire the language nearest his own in point of relationship, though few of- them

have equalled the energy of the secretary, Mr E. E. Founder D'Albe, B.Sc., in assimilating the entire bunch, including the extinct Cornish tongue which formed the link between Welsh and Breton. The iValue of this -linguistic interchange is very great. The Scot or the Irishman "who has mastered both; •branches of Gaelic finds tihnself at the " gate-way of a great realm of heroic legend representing perhaps the ©nly literary .traditions in Europe that has come down from- the -days before history uncut by .;the keen sword of the 'Eoman conqueror. .The Welshman draws new fire -Srom j-he- -martial, mystic, or devotional work-^of the galaxy of"Slngers led !by the gifted "Taldir, which is now wooing the muse of Brittany, And the BTeton, on his part, coon acquires a Borrovian enthusiasm for Dafydd ab Grinlyn, drinks at the charmed fountain of the Mabino•gion, and revels in the stress of lighter literature issuing from the Welsh vernacular press with ite more than 50 newsjpapers, magazines, and reviews.