LLEYN NATIVES FURIOUS Such Prosperity Unwanted
From a Welsh Correspondent The proposal to establish a bombing range in the Lleyn Peninsula, Caernarvonshire, has led to a storm of protest in Wales. The scheme provides for the immigration of 750 men to a part of Wales that is practically mono glot Welsh-speaking, and it is considered certain that in a very few years this district will have lost all-its traditions—both of culture and language. Furthermore, the range will render a beautiful countryside all but derelict.
Objections to the scheme are of two kinds. There is the profoundly peaceloving sentiment of the people (represented by a 90 per cent. return in the recent peace ballot, the vast majority voting for the total abolition of military aircraft, for the benefit of which the range is being established). And there is the view of the Welsh Nationalist Party that the plan is but an instance of the exploitation of Wales by Whitehall. Mr. Saunders Lewis, the president of the party, addressed a letter to the Prime Minister asking for an interview.
Prime Minister's Feelings
The feelings of his followers may be gathered by his saying that " the proposal is one to prevent which even liberty, even life itself, might properly be thrown away." In reply, the Prime Minister's secretary stated that no interview could be granted since "the siting of new training camps ... is only being determined after a comprehensive survey of the British Isles, and at Porth Neigwl it is the Air Ministry's opinion that while the training camp there will bring an increase of prosperity to the district, it will not in fact interfere with the amenities of the Lleyn Peninsula."
The bait of "an increase of prosperity" has led many unemployed in the neighbourhood to prevent the opposers of the scheme getting a hearing at meetings of protest.
Unemployed Want It
Major Goronwy Owen asked the Secretary for Air on April 22 in the House of Commons whether the government had considered the objections raised against the bombing range at Lleyn. In reply, Sir Philip Sassoon said that the importance of the plan and the difficulty in obtaining a suitable site made it necessary to proceed. He believed that the amenities of the district would not be seriously affected. Furthermore, the eagerness of the unemployed in Pwllheli for the scheme must be borne in mind.
A GRIM CHAPTER IN NOTTS HISTORY
Pilgrimage to Beauvale Priory
A dark period of Nottinghamshire history will be recalled when on Sunday the Bishop of Nottingham heads a public pilgrimage to the ruins of Beauvale Priory prior to dedicating a new chapel at Eastwood church.
The chapel is to be dedicated in honour of BB. John Houghton and Robert Lawrence who were martyred 400 years ago at Tyburn.
Both martyrs had been priors of Beauvale, which was a Carthusian property despoiled by order of Henry VII in 1540. It was not, therefore, until several years after the martyrs that the Carthusians were finally dispossessed.