Wales and the war
Sir: Our attention has been drawn to a reference by Leo Abse, MP, in his review of K.O. Morgan's Rebirth of a Nation: Wales 1880-1980(29 May), to the late Professor J. E. Daniel. As sons of Professor Daniel we should be grateful for an opportunity to correct this misrepresentative and defamatory remark. Mr Abser described Professor Daniel, the wartime president of Plaid Cymru, as 'egregious' and 'so warped in judgment that he insisted that there was no distinction in Wales between London and Nazi Berlin'. The basis of this remark is a passage on p.257 of Dr Morgan's book where, in mentioning Plaid Cymru's detachment from 'England's imperialist war', he writes: 'In August 1940, Professor Daniel, now the president of Plaid Cymru, explained that "this war is a clash of rival imperialisms from which Wales, like the other small nations of Europe, has nothing to gain but everything to lose It does not accept the popular English view that this is a crusade of light against darkness. It does not admit the right of England to conscript Welshmen into her army or regard it as the duty of Wales to help London to beat Berlin".'
Mr Abse's words, 'no distinction in Wales', show that he took Professor Daniel's statement as a description of general opinion in Wales. Reasonably conscientious reading would have shown that they describe the policies of Plaid Cymru only. As regards what Professor Daniel actually said, it concerns the right of England to conscript Welshmen. With perfect consistency, Plaid Cymru regarded this conscription as the violation of one nation's integrity by another, not to be justified in terms of 'a crusade of light against darkness'. Neither England nor France could claim such moral authority in 1940. Both held large colonies, won by bloodshed and held down by force. Both had gone to war against Germany because they feared her power, not because they abhorred her fascism. In 1940, German genocide was not yet a reality.
We should like to mention finally that Professor Daniel was a man renowned and loved throughout Wales for his intellectual brilliance and outstanding moral and personal qualities. It is regrettable, but perhaps not surprising, that a man of such stature should be referred to by Mr Abse in such a. disrespectful and Philistine way. Such is Mr Abse's love and knowledge of Wales.
R. I. Daniel J. I. Daniel 12 Menai View, Bangor, Gwynedd, Wales.
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