The Daily News. TUESDAY, NOVEMBER 15. TROUBLE IN WALES.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LIII, Issue 185, 15 November 1910, Page 4

The Daily News. TUESDAY, NOVEMBER 15. TROUBLE IN WALES.

Every Welshman is a revolutionary at heart, because of his temperament. He is emotional, fiery, excitable, clever and quick witted. He hates being "sat on." He hates being beaten. He and his blood relatives, the Cornishmen, held out longer against the conquering hordes that invaded Britain in the long ago than anybody else. It is fair to assume, therefore, that the men of the Principality are "hard nuts to crack," seeing that they are intensely attached to the traditions of a race that has remained unaltered through the centuries. In the past few years we have been treated to a number of views of the real Welshman, and there are plenty of people in New Zealand who really believe that the immense national enthusiasm manifested in the general singing of national airs

stirred the "Taffies" to defeat our famous footballers. The emotional and mercurial temperament of the Welsh was never better demonstrated than during the extraordinary religious revival that swept the Principality a few years ago. It was, in fact, a species of exhaltation that colder people would regard as temporary madness. It would be impossible, for instance, to reproduce the extraordinary scenes of that revival in Scotland, where people do not arrive at conclusions without careful reasoning. The present serious trouble in Wales is likely to be more difficult to deal -with because of the vividness of the Welsh temperament. The present state of affairs has arisen out of a feeling of sympathy with a number of men (between 900 and 1000) who would not accept the price the Cambrian Trust offered for hewing. As far as can be .gathered, the mine-owners imagined "the big-stick'' was the most effective weapon to use in dealing with turbulent Welshmen, and locked these men out. Immediately the lock-out was applied it was perfectly natural for every miner employed in the Cambrian group to be incensed, for there is no class of men who are more "clannish" than miners and no miners who would support each other more readily than the Welsh. The Miners' Federation of South Wales, decided by the lock-out at Ely, ordered a strike to begin within a month from the date of the conference, but the miners, to the number of 12,000, demanded the right to cease work immediately. It will be remembered that in September the cablegrams showed that the miners thought it would be as well to starve at once than to continue to work for starvation wages. Since that time events have made bitter miners more bitter, for the horrifying accident that occurred at Whitehaven must have necessarily affected every coalminer in Britain. Then, too, the general industrial unrest the world over added fuel to the lire. The general opinion among the men seemed to be that the whole of the coalminers of South Wales, numbering nearly a quarter of a million, should strike in sympathy with the Ely men. When a ballot was taken, the men decided by a heavy majority that they would agree to a levy of one shilling a week to support the Cambrian men and would not strike generally. The disaffection has been and is intensely bitter, the coal-owners are apparently as decided as the men, and it is remembered that the Ely men refused the offer of the masters of better terms. Ever since the original strike there have been withdrawals of groups of men, and the strike has spread seriously. No such violent disturbance as that taking place in the affected coal villages has occurred in Britain for many years, and it is certain that the trouble has been increased by internal dissensions and the usual hatred between unionist and "blackleg." One of the points to strike the reader as unusual is that the "leaders" of the men have not been able to lead them at all, that they have been opposed to violence of any kind, but that they have not been able to prevent it. The South Wales Miners' Federation does not support the disaffected section and does not favour a general strike, and so in the affected villages, as we are told, there is "an orgy of naked anarchy," there- seems to have been some deaths, many wounds, rioting, pillaging, and mob rule generally. The disposition of unionists both in Britain and elsewhere at the moment to treat with contempt the decisions of their own executives, is one of the most curious phases of the general unrest. It is extremely rare that in Britain it should be necessary to send troops to quell industrial disturbances, but it is to be recognised that in the Old Country there are no people quite as fiery as the Welsh and none so difficult to curb when they get "out of hand." A mob of any kind of people, once really out of hand, has less sense of responsibility than a mob of cattle, and it is because of this that stern repressive measures are absolutely necessary. It is sincerely to be hoped that the distressing events in Wales may soon cease, for such events mean loss of life, loss of property, sorrow, sickness and hunger for men, women and children, and a slur on the good sense and discipline of a peculiarly lovable people, who, however, lose all noble qualities at such a time as this.