21 JULY 1906, Page 2

On Tuesday evening a Parliamentary storm took place over the

proposal to establish a separate Welsh Council of Educa- tion. If, as is alleged, Wales is unanimous in desiring such a Council, there can of course be no objection to its creation, but it seems to us in every way undesirable that the Council should be represented by a special Minister and not by the Minister of Education. The Council can surely be placed under the Minister of Education without coming under the English Education Office. The analogy drawn from Scotland is a misleading one, unless—which is clearly not the case—the Ministry intend to establish a separate Secretary for Wales who shall be responsible not merely for Welsh education, but for Welsh Poor Law, local government, and so forth. That is a form of local autonomy which we are sure the country is not prepared to grant to Wales. We. are bound to add that the way in which the proposal to create a new Department of State was casually dropped by the Government in the course of the debate was most maladroit. Such blunders in the Parliamentary art are, we suppose, one of the results of overgrown majorities.