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(詳細はNational Eisteddfod in Pwllheli, Caernarfonshire (now Gwynedd).〔John Davies, ''A History of Wales'', Penguin, 1994, ISBN 0-14-014581-8, Page 547〕 Representatives from two Welsh nationalist groups founded the previous year, ''Byddin Ymreolwyr Cymru'' ("the Army of Welsh Home Rulers") and ''Y Mudiad Cymreig'' ("The Welsh Movement"), agreed to meet and discuss the need for a "Welsh party".〔Davies, ''op cit'', Page 547〕 Founded originally under the name ''Plaid Genedlaethol Cymru'', the National Party of Wales, the party would attract members from the left, right and centre of the political spectrum, including both monarchists and republicans, whose principal aims include the promotion of the Welsh language and for the political independence of the Welsh nation. Although Saunders Lewis is regarded as the founder of Plaid Cymru, the historian John Davies argues that the ideas of the left-wing activist D. J. Davies, which were adopted by the party's president Gwynfor Evans after the Second World War, were more influential in shaping its ideology in the long term.〔John Davies, ''Wales and America''〕 According to the historian John Davies, D. J. Davies was an "equally significant figure" as was Lewis in the history of Welsh nationalism, but it was Lewis's "brilliance and charismatic appeal" which was firmly associated with ''Plaid'' in the 1930s.〔〔''Why Not a Welsh Royal Family?'' by Siôn T. Jobbins, January 2008, Cambria magazine〕〔John Davies, ''A History of Wales'', Pages 591, 592〕 After initial success as an educational pressure group, the events surrounding ''Tân yn Llŷn'' (''Fire in Llŷn'') in the 1930s〔 led to the party adopting a pacifist political doctrine and protests against the flooding of Capel Celyn in the 1950s further helped define its politics. These early events were followed by Evans's election to Parliament as the party's first MP in 1966, the successful campaigning for the Welsh Language Act of 1967 and Evans going on hunger strike for a dedicated Welsh-language television channel in 1981. ''Plaid Cymru'' is the third largest political party in Wales, with 11 of 60 seats in the National Assembly for Wales. From 2007 to 2011, it was the junior partner in the One Wales coalition government, with Welsh Labour. ''Plaid'' holds one of the four Welsh seats in the European Parliament, three of the 40 Welsh seats in the UK Parliament, and it has 205 of 1,264 principal local authority councillors.〔 〕 According to accounts filed with the Electoral Commission for the year of 2004, the party has an income and expenditure of about £500,000.〔Electoral Commission: (2004 accounts )〕 ==Foundation 1925== Discussions for the need of a "Welsh party" had been circulating since the 19th century.〔Davies, ''op cit'', pages 415, 454〕 With the generation or so before 1922 there "had been a marked growth in the constitutional recognition of the Welsh nation", wrote historian Dr. John Davies.〔Davies, ''op cit'', Page 544〕 A Welsh national consciousness re-emerged during the 19th century; leading to the establishment of the National Eisteddfod in 1861, the University of Wales (''Prifysgol Cymru'') in 1893, and the National Library of Wales (''Llyfrgell Genedlaethol Cymru'') in 1911, and by 1915 the Welsh Guards (''Gwarchodlu Cymreig'') was formed to include Wales in the UK national component to the Foot Guards. By 1924 there were people in Wales "eager to make their nationality the focus of Welsh politics".〔 Support for home rule for Wales and Scotland amongst most political parties was strongest in 1918 following the independence of other European countries after the First World War, and the Easter Rising in Ireland, wrote Dr. Davies.〔Davies, ''op cit'', Page 523〕 However, in the UK General Elections of 1922, 1923, and 1924; "Wales as a political issue was increasingly eliminated from the (agenda )".〔 By August 1925 unemployment in Wales rose to 28.5%, this in contrast to the economic boom in the early 1920s.〔 For Wales, the long depression began in 1925.〔 It was in this climate that the Welsh Home Rulers group and the Welsh Movement met. Both organisations sent a delegation of three to the meeting, with H. R. Jones heading the ''Welsh Home Rulers'' group and Saunders Lewis heading ''The Welsh Movement''. They were joined by Lewis Valentine, D.J. Williams, and Ambrose Bebb, among others. The principal aim of the party was to foster a Welsh-speaking Wales.〔Davies, ''op cit'', page 548〕 To this end it was agreed that party business be conducted in Welsh, and that members sever all links with other British parties.〔 Lewis insisted on these principles before he would agree to the Pwllheli conference. According to the 1911 census, out of a population of just under 2.5 million, 43.5% of the total population of Wales spoke Welsh as a primary language.〔(BBCWales History language map 1911 extracted 12-03-07 )〕 This was a decrease from the 1891 census with 54.4% speaking Welsh out of a population of 1.5 million.〔(BBCWales History language map 1891 extracted 12-03-07 )〕 With these prerequisites Lewis condemned "'Welsh nationalism' as it had hitherto existed, a nationalism characterised by inter-party conferences, an obsession with Westminster and a willingness to accept a subservient position for the Welsh language", wrote Dr. Davies.〔 It may be because of these strict positions that the party failed to attract politicians of experience in its early years.〔 However, the party's members believed its founding was an achievement in itself; "merely by existing, the party was a declaration of the distinctiveness of Wales", wrote Dr. Davies.〔 In these early years ''Plaid Genedlaethol Cymru'' published a monthly paper called ''Y Ddraig Goch'' (the Red Dragon, the national symbol of Wales) and held an annual summer school. H.R. Jones, the party's full-time secretary, established a few party branches, while Valentine served as party president between 1925 and 1926. In the UK General Election of 1929, Valentine stood for Caernarfon and polled 609 votes. Later they became known as 'the Gallant Six Hundred' when Dafydd Iwan immortalised them in song.〔〔(Plaid Cymru: Who We Are )〕 By 1932 the aims of self government and Welsh representation at the League of Nations had been added to that of preserving Welsh language and culture. However this move, and the party's early attempts to develop an economic critique, did not lead to the broadening of its appeal beyond that of an intellectual and socially conservative Welsh-language pressure group.〔McAllister, L, ''Plaid Cymru: The Emergence of a Political Party'', (2001), Seren "The tentative moves towards elaborating and broadening Plaid's policy portfolio did not allow it to shake off its early identity as a language movement or a cultural pressure group." See also Butt-Phillip, A, ''The Welsh Question'', (1975), University of Wales Press. "It is clear that the Welsh Nationalist Party was at the outset essentially intellectual and moral in outlook and socially conservative.〕 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「History of Plaid Cymru」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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