THE LLANGOLLEN INTERNATIONAL EISTEDDFOD

HL Deb 08 November 1966 vol 277 cc875-82

7.49 p.m.

LORD MAELOR rose to ask Her Majesty's Government whether they are aware of the great part played by the Llangollen International Eisteddfod in the national and artistic life of Wales and beyond; and whether there is anything that Her Majesty's Government could do to be of financial assistance to this important national event. The noble Lord said: My Lords, I am sure there is not a single noble Lord in your Lordships' House who has not heard of the Llangollen International Eisteddfod whose renown by to-day has traversed the five continents. It was inaugurated two years after the last war and sponsored by the British Council in an endeavour to reconcile and bring together representatives of those countries who had so recently been embroiled in bloody conflict. Its success was immediate, and what diplomacy had miserably failed to accomplish throughout the ages was accomplished at this Festival and has been repeated for twenty years.

The Festival binds together people of different languages and ways of life in an atmosphere of harmony engendered through song and dance. It was appropriate that this Festival should be held in Wales, which is known as "the Land of Song". Competitors from all over Europe, and beyond, have been coming over annually in their hundreds to participate in this Festival. Wherever I have travelled in Europe—in Holland, Belgium, Germany, Yugoslavia—I have met people who have been to this Festival. Last year, for instance, no fewer than thirty different countries were represented there. When these people sing and dance together, and intermingle with affection and joy, it can be regarded as one of the miracles of the 20th Century.

It is still unfortunately true that much strife and bitterness prevail in this sad world; yet all of us have a vision of a better time to come. At our religious festivals, and even at our political conferences, we sing with great gusto the words of the famous hymn by John A. Symonds: New arts shall bloom of loftier mould, And mightier music thrill the skies; And every life shall be a song When all the earth is Paradise". I claim that the Festival of Llangollen is an earnest of that. It was Her Majesty the Queen who expressed the sentiment of this Festival in a message granting her patronage in 1948, in which she said—and I quote A gathering of this nature, apart from its value in the world of music, will help in every way to promote understanding and friendship between nations. Writing about it, Sir Thomas Armstrong, Principal of the Royal Academy of Music, once said, Llangollen has to be seen to be believed. The purpose of my raising this Question is to seek financial aid, and I will give my reasons before I resume my seat. In making my appeal I am up against one difficulty—curiously enough, a pleasant difficulty. This subject can claim the attention and the interest of three Government Departments, namely, the Welsh Office, the Ministry of Education and the Foreign Office. My noble friend Lord Champion when replying will please and satisfy me if this evening he can promise that he will consult not only with the Welsh Office—I am sure he has already had consultations there—but also with the Ministry of Education and, too, the Foreign Office, to see whether any of them can assist.

In the first place, this is essentially a Welsh matter in which the Welsh Office will obviously be interested. The Festival is held in the small town of Llangollen in Wales and is organised by Welsh people. I know how jealous of the good name of the Principality is my right honourable friend the Secretary of State for Wales, and there is nothing I can teach him about this Festival. How proud he must feel that this institution has made his small country honoured and renowned throughout the globe. It has great economic value for Wales. Over the past nineteen years over 3,500 choirs and folk-dance groups from fifty different countries have competed at this Festival. Of course, once they arrive here naturally they spend money here—they cannot live on the air. They spend their money when they come within our shores. Not only is this so, but what a boon it has been to the tourist industry, especially the tourist industry of Wales, because these people act as ambassadors and advertisers when they return to their own countries! I trust, therefore, that the Welsh Office, in spite of the financial difficulties of the country at the present moment, will use its influence in many directions and spare no effort to assist financially this great Festival.

I now leave my appeal to the Welsh Office, because knowing my right honourable friend the Secretary of State as I do, I feel that any further remarks in that direction would be superfluous. This Festival certainly has an educational aspect worthy of the attention of my right honourable friend Miss Jennie Lee. She has to do with art and culture in Britain. This Festival is essentially and manifestly one of art and culture in the best sense of those two words. It should be noted that the choirs competing at the Festival are not allowed to sing pieces of their own choice. On the contrary, these choirs come together to perform the same carefully selected representative choral classics of the chief European schools of composition, which are specially made available in a number of languages; and the same stringency applies to folk dancing. The effect all this music must have on the musical life of those participating must be far-reaching indeed from the point of view of art and culture. Many of these choirs, of course, are British choirs. I hope, therefore, that my words will reach the ears of my lady friend, for I am sure that Miss Jennie Lee will readily recognise that here is propagation of art and culture at its highest level.

Lastly, there is the international aspect of the Festival, which cannot fail to command the attention of the Foreign Office. As I pointed out previously, 3,500 choirs from over fifty different countries have already competed. Who can measure the good will which that has created? My noble friend Lord Chalfont, Minister for Disarmament, experiencing his difficulties at Geneva, must cast an envious eye on Llangollen. I wonder whether the Foreign Office, recognising the good work performed by this Festival, and which gave it its blessing at its inception, can come to its aid. Only last night the superintendent of police in the Wrexham area was telling me that he had a letter on Saturday from a lady in South America asking him whether he would secure her a ticket for the Festival next year. She had no idea where to write. She was far away in South America; but she knew that Wrexham was near Llangollen, and she had the wisdom to contact the Chief of Police there.

I end on a sad note. Next year the Festival will be celebrating its twenty-first birthday. Unless a grant in aid of about £5,000 comes from one source or another I am afraid that next year's event will be the last. I am sorry to say it, but I have to say it. What a tragedy that would be, all for the sake of only £5,000! I use the word "only" advisedly, because so much is at stake, which cannot be measured in terms of £5,000, as I am sure all noble Lords will agree. I trust that my plea this evening will not fall on deaf ears. I am sorry the noble Lord, Lord Ogmore, is not in his place, but he found it impossible to be here. He is a Vice-President of the Festival, and would gladly have supported me in my plea this evening.

8.0 p.m.

THE MINISTER WITHOUT PORTFOLIO (LORD CHAMPION)

My Lords, my noble friend has spoken with the hwyl that we expect of him—and if noble Lords do not happen to know what that word means, it means the difference between the oratory of the Land of Song and the oratory of the more prosaic English. What my noble friend has said has a tremendous amount of truth in it. Wales can boast of many innovations and many successes over the years, but it has nothing else which can compare with the Llangollen International Musical Eisteddfod. The unique flavour of this annual event arises from the fact that it is this small town of Llangollen's own Festival, organised and supported by the town's people themselves, and yet from this small town in Wales it can appeal to folk dancers and choirs from over fifty countries throughout the world.

Its aim, an aim which I am sure we all support, has been To promote international peace and goodwill through the medium of fine arts, and in particular the art of music and to achieve this aim this small town of 3,000 people in the Dee Valley accommodates each year 10,000 guests, of whom 2,000 come from other countries of Europe and beyond. All competitors from overseas have their fares paid from London to Llangollen by the Eisteddfod Council and receive free board and lodging in and around the town. As well as these overseas competitors, visitors from our own country bring the number of people attending to around 180,000 each year.

We must stress that the success of the International Eisteddfod is, then, Llangollen's own success and nobody else's, except for such support as it has managed to get from outside. But this was the creation of this town, and its success, to which my noble friend has pointed, is something of which I am sure every resident of this small town in the Dee Valley is proud. Virtually all that has been achieved has been due to local enthusiasm, local hospitality and local generosity. The Arts Council have sponsored such items as evening concerts given by professional artists and they have also made—and I am pleased about this—increasing contributions over the last years. In 1964–65, for example, the Welsh Committee of the Arts Council contributed £500; in 1965–66 the sum was £1,000, and in 1966–67, the current year, the sum of £2,500 has been given to the Eisteddfod. As my noble friend knows perfectly well, to some extent this must be due to the lady whom he mentioned, Miss Jennie Lee, except for the fact that the Government place money at the disposal of the Arts Council, though they do not tell the Council how to spend it. I think this is right. They do not say to the Arts Council: "You must support this, that or the other". It leaves to that body the decision as to where the money should go. Clearly in this case the Arts Council has looked at this unique festival and has said: we will step up our contribution from the £500 to the £2,500 of to-day. I sincerely hope that the Arts Council will be able to support the Eisteddfod in the same way in future years.

Again, I must stress the fact that the Eisteddfod has achieved its success through the efforts and devotion of Llangollen's own people. As time has passed, of course, they have come to realise that, despite all that has been done, much work remains. With the increasing success of the Eisteddfod the problem of organisation has grown. The present accommodation, for example, is in tents and marquees, and since, even in July, the weather in Wales is occasionally known to be wet, the lack of more permanent buildings makes itself particularly felt. More important, increased expenses have left little, if any, margin for reserves, and it is hard to avoid making a loss on each annual Eisteddfod. Because of this lack of financial reserves, an appeal for funds was launched in March, 1965, by the then Lord Mayor of Cardiff, and this has been renewed by his two successors in office. The object of the appeal is to set up a fund which will enable the organisers to have an assured income in order to meet rising costs and to budget beforehand for the programme. The two successive Secretaries of State for Wales have, in turn, been Patrons of the Appeal. The aim has been to collect £100,000, but, unfortunately, despite every effort no more than £5,788 has been raised so far.

Although I am proud of Wales, proud of this land which accepted me and which now, I think, counts me as an adopted Welshman, I am not very proud of the figure I have announced here to-night. I feel that more could have been done by means of voluntary contributions to save this unique event. I mention this, not in order that I might say that the Government ought not to do anything about it, but merely as an expression of my feeling about the collection, a fund which was set up and which has been supported by successive Secretaries of State. The Government are convinced that those responsible for the organisation of this annual Festival have followed the right course in seeking support first from the town's people, secondly from local authorities within a reasonable distance of the town and, finally, from the people of Wales through the Lord Mayor of Cardiff's Appeal.

When Government assistance is referred to, it is right to point out that Government support for the arts is channelled through the Arts Council, and it is now an accepted tradition that the spending of the Council's annual Vote is not subject to detailed examination and control. What can be said, however, is that the limited funds at the disposal of the Arts Council are normally devoted primarily to the improvement of artistic standards, and the Council is therefore normally associated with professional work, and the £2,500 which it donates to this Festival is normal practice. A joint circular issued by the Department of Education and Science and the Welsh Office last year pointed out that amateur work is, by definition, normally sustained by the resources of the performers and their friends and any necessary subsidy will most naturally be a local responsibility.

One source of funds which I have mentioned consists of contributions from local authorities. On this I can say that powers are available to local authorities whose areas are convenient to Llangollen to contribute to the expenses of running the International Eisteddfod. This power was widened by an Act of 1963, so that other authorities whose areas are not so convenient and are not adjoining this area but who consider that the Eisteddfod is of benefit to their area or to their residents, can contribute with the consent of the Secretary of State for Wales, and any applications for consent will receive sympathetic consideration.

So it is up to any authority in Wales which feels that it ought to contribute, to apply to the Secretary of State for Wales for permission to make a grant from the rates towards the maintenance of this unique Festival. I would point out, however—and this is just a little note of caution—that my right honourable friend the Secretary of State for Wales must this year have regard to the current economic situation when he receives those applications. I will not say any more than that I am positive that my right honourable friend the Secretary of State has this Festival very much in mind, and would not like to see it die for lack of the sort of support which local authorities might be able to give to it.

I would just mention, in conclusion, that the last source of funds to which I referred was the appeal which a former Lord Mayor of Cardiff was good enough to launch. It is the earnest desire of all those who cherish and admire everything that the Llangollen Eisteddfod stands for, that this appeal should receive the support it merits. My noble friend has pressed me to ask various members of the Government to do something about this Festival. I cannot go to these members of the Government and ask them separately to do something about it, for the Government are, as they ought to be, indivisible. All I can do—and I will promise to do this—is to bring to the notice of my right honourable friend the Secretary of State for Wales everything that my noble friend has said in this connection, and of course if my right honourable friend wishes to consult his colleagues about it it will be for him to do, and not for me to do.

This is a Festival worthy of support. I think we should all remember the motto of the Eisteddfod, which in its English rendering—I will not give the Welsh, as I am not sure that my pronunciation would stand up to it—is: Blessed is a world that sings, gentle are its songs".