Editing Plaid Cymru (section)

===1930s===
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 broaden its appeal beyond that of an intellectual and [[socially conservative]] Welsh language pressure group.<ref>McAllister, L., ''Plaid Cymru: the Emergence of a Political Party'' (Seren, 2001), "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 Philip, A. B., ''The Welsh Question'' (University of Wales Press, 1975), "It is clear that the Welsh Nationalist Party was at the outset essentially intellectual and moral in outlook and socially conservative."</ref> The alleged sympathy of the party's leading members (including President [[Saunders Lewis]]) towards Europe's [[totalitarianism|totalitarian regimes]] compromised its early appeal further.<ref>Morgan, K. O., ''Welsh Devolution: the Past and the Future'' in ''Scotland and Wales: Nations Again?'' (ed. Taylor, B., and Thomson, K.), (1999), University of Wales Press. Williams, G. A. ''When Was Wales?'', (1985), Penguin. Davies, J., ''A History of Wales'', (1990, rev. 2007), Penguin. Davies, D. H., ''The Welsh Nationalist Party 1925–1945'' (1983), St. Martin's Press. Morgan, K. O., ''Rebirth of a Nation'', (1981), OUP.</ref>

Saunders Lewis, David John Williams and Lewis Valentine set fire to the newly constructed RAF [[Penyberth]] air base on the [[Llŷn Peninsula]] in [[Gwynedd]] in 1936, in protest at its siting in the Welsh-speaking heartland. The leaders' treatment, including the trial judge's dismissal of the use of Welsh and their subsequent imprisonment in [[Wormwood Scrubs (HM Prison)|Wormwood Scrubs]], led to "The Three" becoming a ''[[cause célèbre]]''. This heightened the profile of the party dramatically and its membership had doubled to nearly 2,000 by 1939.<ref name="Philip 1975" /><ref name="Y tri">{{cite book |title=A companion to early twentieth-century Britain |last=Jones |first=R. Merfyn |editor1-last=Wrigley |editor1-first=Chris |year=2003 |series=Blackwell's Companion to British History |publisher=[[Wiley-Blackwell]] |location=Oxford |isbn=0-631-21790-8 |page=99 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=GCFb2UkPYaQC&pg=PA99 |access-date=9 February 2011 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160505071226/https://books.google.com/books?id=GCFb2UkPYaQC&pg=PA99 |archive-date=5 May 2016 |url-status=live }}</ref>