A SPECTATOR'S NOTEBOOK
IN case anyone is in danger of forgetting what a beguiling institution the human race is, I summarise some reports of its recent behaviour; they all appeared in the same paper on the same day of this week. At Mold a member of the Welsh Nationalist Party declared that there was no hope or future for the Welsh language unless it had official status, .while at Rhyl a German choir, singing in Welsh, won a first prize at the Eisteddfod. A Lebanese civil servant swam the English Channel, on whose shores the Hastings and St. Leonards Socialist Hoteliers' Association Were under fire for binding themselves to give preferential treatment to Socialist guests (" We want to create a congenial atmosphere "). At Oxford delegates from France, Belgium, Luxembourg and Yugoslavia walked out of a conference of the World Con- federation of Organisations of the Teaching Profession, which represents 3,000,000 teachers in thirty-three countries, because two observers from Spain were present; and the South African Government refused a visa to a lawn tennis player from Ecuador because he comes from a hard currency country. I can still see light at the end of the tunnel, though.
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