The Wanganui Chronicle. TUESDAY, NOVEMBER 30, 1948. WELSH NATIONALISM

Wanganui Chronicle, 30 November 1948, Page 4

The Wanganui Chronicle. TUESDAY, NOVEMBER 30, 1948. WELSH NATIONALISM

' I 'HE mild form of nationalism which quickens life in the Princi--1 pality takes the form chiefly of preserving the language and promoting Eisteddfod. It does not desire to play for independence, but there is a strong feeling that Wales has as much right to Ministerial representation as has Scotland. Welsh affairs take on a complexion of their own and administratively the Principality could conveniently be regarded as a single unit. This would be a natural line of administrative devolution, a development particularly favoured some decades ago by Mr. Winston Churchill. It was evidently the desire of the present Government of the United Kingdom to exploit this spirit of Welsh nationalism, but it is proposed to do so by half measures which savour offering a scarecrow instead of a man. Mr. Herbert Morrison announced in the House of Commons that while rejecting the proposal to appoint a Minister for Welsh Affairs, it was proposed to set up a Council for Wales whose work would be to inform the Government of the trends of Welsh opinion and of how the Governmental activities ■were affecting the lives of the people of Wales. Such a, statement met with the reception that it deserved. The people of Wales have already elected persons “to inform the Government of the trends of Welsh opinion,” that being the particular function of the members of Parliament. If others are to duplicate the function of Parliamentarians for Wales then obviously there must be need for duplication in East Anglia and in the West Country, while the task of doing the same thing for the industrial north could not be gainsaid. The exclusion of Parliamentarians adds the touch of the ridiculous for here are Parliamentarians proclaiming their own disqualification and surely there must be some reason why they should be ruled out. If they are to be ruled out as the informers of the Government concerning the state of public opinion what function is left for the Parliamentarians?

The Welsh people are more poetic than humorous, but they are not devoid of humour to the extent that they cannot see the ridiculousness of the Government’s proposal. To call the move air insult to Wales, however, is wide of the mark: it casts no reflection upon either Wales or Welshmen, but it is the biggest selfcondemnation that any group of members of the House of Commons have ever advanced.

Why this ridiculous writing-down of Parliamentarians should have been essayed by the Labour Government of the United Kingdom is difficult to discover. Possibly, in view of the recent Edmonton by-election result it is a working out of the Greek saying: “Those whom the gods would destroy they first make mad.”

IN CANING’S PLEASANT LAND

COME people never seem to know when their point has been established. Mr. Eric Wildman, who calls himself President, of the National Society for the Retention of Corporal Punishment, found when he visited Horsley Hall School, at Eccleshall, Staffordshire, that his point of view was thoroughly appreciated even by the scholars. No doubt Mr. Wildman, notwithstanding his name, has a childlike faith in the beneficial influence of canes, for he took twenty of these instruments of instruction along with him when hhe paid his reported visit. Evidently it was needless for the children were already convinced of the educative influence of the rod and they immediately applied six of the best to the visiting advocate. Instead of admitting to the children concerned that he was thoroughly convinced by their demonstration of the efficiency of his own medicine he complained about having to swallow a mild dose of it and that he was going to consult his lawyer on the subject. What has a lawyer to do with education? He could advise on a legal position but not on the educative value of a painful situation. If it failed to teach Mr. Wildman anything particular how could he expect the children to extract more from a caning than he did himself?

It was Solomon who said “Spare the rod and spoil the child,” but there is no record that Solomon sought to educate by means of the rod. There is a place for everything in this world, even corporal punishment, and when appropriately applied it has a very desirable effect upon a precocious or unruly youngster which gives him a healthy respect for the rights of others, including teachers. It is a fact that where discipline is strict and enforced there delinquency declines and the children are both healthy and happy. By applying the cane to Mr. Wildman, however, the pupils of Horsley Hall School established the point made by Solomon and sought to be upheld by the school’s visitor. Physical correction is very-convincing. The trouble with the flogging school-teacher, like the flogging horse-trainer, is that the former is not a teacher and the latter is not a trainer. It is not correction that is applied by the flogger but an establishing of the operator’s own ineompctance for the job of instruction he has undertaken. It has become fashionable in certain quarters of late to refer to the flogging-school-master of some indeterminate time in the past as being typical of the teaching profession, probably of fifty years ago. In benighted communities this may have been so, but half a century ago the schools were manned by some ornaments of the profession who were at least comparable to the best men and women of today. It is probable that the general average was at least as high in respect to ability and capacity for teaching half a century ago. Whether children have become less tough and consequently less adventurous and as a result the delinquency of today differs from that of yester-year is a subject which would no doubt evoke a discussion drawn chiefly from reminiscence, The Horsley Hall incident, However, reveals that initiative and imagination, and even leadership, is not entirely lacking with the rising generation in England, so despite all the deficiencies in the education today the children seem to be somehow surviving, proving once again that boys will be boys and some girls will be tomboys.