UNEMPLOYED ADOLESCENT BOYS IN THE SOUTH WALES COALFIELD
[To the Editor of the SPECTATOR.]
SIR,—As a resident in the Rhondda Valley and honorary secretary of a group of boys' clubs I ask your kind permission to place before your readers a scheme which I have been trying to develop on behalf of some of our adolescent boys. In a mono-industrial area—such as our mining valleys make up --the prospects of the average boy to-day are indeed tragically poor. I know of scores of parents who have stinted them- selves of bare necessities to provide their boys with a good education, and who have now no other prospect than sending them underground—if the colliery reopens. To-day our streets are full of boys who have never even started work and who are gradually drifting into a state of contentment with that condition of affairs. Many a desperate parent has informed me that his worries and anxieties in this direction have been the source of far greater distress to him even than the shortage of food and clothing.
As a federation, we have a few well-established boys' clubs, organized on sound lines, which a large number of these boys attend. We know all of them and what they are capable of : and we have on our membership rolls scores of splendid young fellows who are willing to do anything to give relief to their parents and occupation to themselves. I wondered whether I could arrange through you to draw up a roll of those of your readers who might be prepared to employ such boys and to help them to learn a trade.
Last summer a lady in Surrey took one of them into her garden on the basis of board and lodging and a little pocket
money. That boy is now learning a useful trade. Latterly we sent six others to a boys' club in London which is seeking to place them into useful trades. To-day our papers are full of emigration schemes—and we are cot operating in the work—but many of our parents, like all others, want to keep their boys in the Old Country. May I venture to hope that I can succeed in persuading someone to appreciate what a really good turn it is to see one young lad started fairly on a useful career, and to co-operate in this scheme.—! am, Sir, &c., J. GLYNN-JONES. South Wales Federation of Miners' Boys 'club, "Highlands," Hospital Road, Pontypridd, S. 1Vales.
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