THE PORT OF LEITH

Evening Post, Volume CXXIV, Issue 55, 2 September 1937, Page 12

THE PORT OF LEITH

The Leith Chamber of Commerce, instituted in 1840, has just published a business man's guide to the Port 01 Leith, one of the oldest ports in Great Britain. It was from Leith in 1698 that the ill-fated Darien expedition set out and it was on the golf links of that town that James Duke of York (in 1682) played golf and the cannon Mons Meg, burst when fired in his honour. But it is the commercial port of Leith as it is today that is the chifif point of interest for business, men. It has regular steamship lines trading with the Baltic, France, Germany, Scotland, Belgium, and North and South America, as well as coastal services including London, Northern Ireland, and the Irish Free State, and direct connections with Australia. It has rail and road connection with all Scotland serving the east and west coasts of the North of England. Local industries are shipbuilding and engineering. Coal mining, chemicals, corn, timber, and a great fish and corn trade. From ancient times it has been an important centre of the Scottish wine and spirit trade. By its municipal amalgamation with Edinburgh, the City of Leith shares in the facilities which rank, the capital city as the headquarters of Scottish finance.