§ Brigadier-General Sir OWEN THOMASasked the President of the Board of Education whether he is aware that when Welsh education authorities send official communications in the Welsh language to the Welsh Department of the Board of Education the reply is sent that the communications will only be answered when the official letter is written in the English language; whether such refusal is due to the lack of officials conversant with the Welsh language on the staff of the Welsh Department; and whether this disparagement of the native tongue of the Principality of Wales can be reconciled with the creation of the Welsh Department, which enforces the use and teaching of the Welsh language, so far as is possible, in the schools controlled by the Welsh Department of the Board of Education?
§ Mr. FISHERI am not aware of any occasion on which a Welsh education authority has sent an official communication in the "Welsh language to the Welsh Department of the Board of Education and has received the reply that communications will only be answered when the official letter is written in the English language. If the hon. and gallant Member will furnish me with the name of any Welsh education authority which he has in mind, and the date of the authority's letter and of the Board's reply, with the reference number quoted on the letter, if possible, I will inquire into the matter. In the meantime, I can assure him that any disparagement of the native language of Wales would be wholly inconsistent with the policy of continuous sympathy and encouragement which the Welsh Department, adequately staffed as it is with Welsh-speaking officers, has openly pursued since its inception.