Welsh Journals

The Communal Conscience in Wales in the Inter-war Years by John Davies, PhD Sixty years ago, on 10 March 1938, a distinguished member of this society, Clement Davies, the MP for Montgomeryshire, addressed members of the Caernarfonshire County Council. 'I am tempted,' he said, 'to [say] to the.Council. are you not ashamed of yourselves?' Two days earlier he had roundly declared: 'There is much left to be desired in the conduct of public affairs in the County of Anglesey.'1 These comments were made during the sittings of the Committe of Inquiry into the Anti-Tuberculosis Service in Wales, a committee of which Clement Davies was chairman. When the committee's report was made public in March 1939, it was found to contain other criticisms of the local authorities of Wales. The district councils of Meirionnydd were considered to 'be guilty of serious dereliction of duty' whereas as those in Montgomeryshire had a record for which 'there is no justification and of which they might well be ashamed'. Those of Pembrokeshire had 'failed in their duty' and in Cardiganshire the councils were 'dilatory and apathetic'. On the other hand, in north-east Wales, the Denbighshire County Council deserved congratulations and the committee's report stated of Flintshire: 'We cannot pay too high a tribute to this county, its Council and its most efficient officials'. In the south-east, despite the rigours of an unprecedented depression, the authorities deserved high commendation and the commissioners expressed their 'admiration for the excellent administration throughout'. 3 When the report was published, it created uproar. Davies and his colleague Dr Coutts were, it was alleged, indulging in sensationalism. On 31 March 1939, at a meeting of this society held to discuss the report, Davies felt the This article is based on a lecture given to the Honourable Society at the British Academy on 13 May 1998, with the President of the Society in the chair. An earlier version was published in Welsh in CofCenedl, IV (1989) National Library of Wales (henceforth NLW) 15355D, 81 (8 March 1938), 15356D, 193 (10 March 1938). The National Library has a complete typescript of the oral evidence collected by the Clement Davies committee: NLW 1535 ID to 15359D. In the volumes, pagination starts all over again at the beginning of each day's sitting. 2 Ministry of Health: The Report of the Committee of Inquiry into the Anti-Tuberculosis Service in Wales (1939) (henceforth Report) 159, 174, 181. Until the publication of the Beveridge Report in 1943, the Clement Davies Report was the best-selling official report in British history. 3 Ibid., 165, 167, 169