At a recruiting meeting at Bangor, Sir Henry Jones made a statement of much interest. “I have just made a tour through Wales, I have visited all classes – quarrymen, miners, ironworkers; I have touched Welsh life in various ways, and I have come to the conclusion that Wales is doing exceeding well,” he declared.
Sir Henry added that his beloved country was coming out without a blot on its escutcheon or a stain on its honour.
He was also convinced that the people of Wales, taken as a whole, would accept some form of compulsion if our leaders came to the conclusion that voluntaryism had not done quite enough.
There was only a small remnant that it would be difficult to deal with, and he would hold the religious and other teachers responsible for any recalcitrant spirit against the State.
People did not realise what a splendid thing the State was, and the indebtedness of the individual to the State.
He refuted the accepted belief that compulsion was an enemy of liberty, and pointed out that history showed that compulsion and liberty had grown together, and that the community had forced people to be free.
