Extracts of correspondence from Prison Letters by John Barnard Jenkins 1971

 Extracts of correspondence from Prison Letters by John Barnard Jenkins (Y Lolfa)

HM Prison Wormwood Scrubs
May 1971

Annwyl Mrs White

Many thanks indeed for your most welcome and refreshing letter… I say, and, repeat, “welcome” and “refreshing” not for my sake alone, but for the sake of old Mother Wales, who will need to start worrying when letters like yours cease to be written…She is not a beautiful young girl after whom I lust, or an old Duchess whose money and status I desire; she is old, well past her best, decrepit and boozy and has taken strange bedfellows without the saving grace of desperation.

I “took up arms” because with many other people, I could feel instinctively that our national identity, our sacred soul, our everything, was not only being threatened but was in the last stages of survival. My aim was to create a state of mind, so that people would not accept all that the English government said and did as Moses on the Mount; to make them realise that all actions are acceptable when performed in the national interest.

My friends lost their lives, I and others have lost our freedom for a Wales, free and Cymraeg, and I will never settle for anything less. The fight is not only against inertia and apathy but against time itself, because Cymraeg can only be saved and cultural renaissance created by an Independent Welsh Government.

We must always remember that to be liked is fatal, because all we can hope for then is benign toleration. We must aim preferably at being hated, then at least we gain a healthy respect.
Force is to diplomacy what bullion is to banknotes. I have always believed that there is a direct connection between one’s social attitude towards a people, and its fighting record.
I hope you and your husband have not gained the impression that I am a bloodthirsty militarist. It is simply that the Government has placed us in the final position where we either become men or mice; there is no honourable position in between.

Er mwyn Cymru