SCOTS' STONE OF DESTINY.

Auckland Star, Volume LV, Issue 168, 17 July 1924, Page 5

SCOTS' STONE OF DESTINY.

• —— MACS WANT IT BACK. LONDON WILL KEEP IT. HILARITY IN THE HOUSE. (By Cable.—Fress Association.—Copyright.) (Received ] 1.30 a.m.) LONDON, July 16. ; Thero was great hilarity in the House [ of Commons when Mr. David Kirkwood, 1 M.P. for Dumbarton, introduced a bill 1 to provide for the removal of the Scottish "Stone of Destiny" from Westminster ' Abbey to Holyrood Palace. ' Mr. Kirkwood said that according to tradition the stone was Jacob's pillow at Bethel when he was ileeing before his brother Esau. Jacob's family took it to Egypt. The Kings of Egypt long possessed it, and it was then taken to Ireland. Mr. Kirkwood said he did not know whether that was true, but anyhow the stone was of Scottish sandstone, and lav at Scone for five centuries until it was brought to England by Edward I. This stone was the symbol of Scottish nationhood and a venerable relic. Scotland had tried repeatedly to get it ' rettirned to Scotland, but there was a sentiment in London against its return. Lord Allen Apsley, in opposing the bill, said tradition stated that the stone was brought to Scone to be presented to the Pope as a reward for converting , Scotland to Christianity. The God Odin, ' incensed at another Deity who had been making eyes at his wife, threw a stone '. at his head, but it fortunately missed and fell in Scotland. The bill was read a first time by 201 to 171.—(A. and N.Z. Cable.)