5 MARCH 1932, Page 3

The Flag of Wales In these days of impassioned nationalisms

it is a serious business to deny respect to the Welsh flag. But the quarrel of the Welsh Nationalists with the Office of Works fines itself down to a very narrow point. Mr. Ormsby-Gore, with the usual official homage to precedent, decreed that the Union Jack should fly from the Eagle Tower of Carnarvon Castle on St. David's Day, but the Dragon Flag of Wales still streamed in the wind from some lesser turret adjacent. But for the Welsh it had to be Dragon on Eagle or nowhere. Has not Mr. Kipling styled the Union Jack the Flag of England in one of his best-known poems ? Why should St. George be given precedence over St. David on St. David's own day ? Symbols perhaps matter more to the Celt than to the Saxon.. In any case, the desire to give the Welsh flag pride of place on St. David's Day seems altogether reasonable, though it is a little unfortunate that it should have expressed itself at Carnarvon in the destruction of- the official Union Jack unofficially hauled down to make room temporarily for the national emblem. If Mr. Ormsby-Gore finds himself fettered by old pre- cedents, let him have the courage to make a new one.