INVASION OF SCOTLAND.

Evening Star, Issue 19722, 24 November 1927, Page 6

INVASION OF SCOTLAND.

“Stands Scotland -where she did?” There are Scotsmen who have disturbing doubts about it, and Dean Inge, With his keen eye for decadence and the signs of decadence everywhere, believes that they have reason for their anxiety. He is concerned about the influx of those whom ho calls “lowgrade” Irish into Glasgow and other parts of the West of Scotland, where they tend to increase much faster than the native population, while Scotsmen continue to emigrate from their own country. Neither tendency is new. It was Sir Charles Dilkc who said: “ In British settlements from Canada to Ceylon, from Dunedin to Bombay, for every Englishman you meet who has worked himself up to wealth from small beginnings without external aid you find 10 Scotsmen.” And all the time that has been going on, probably, Irishmen have been taking their places in the West of Scotland. The invasion has been a great grief to the Scottish churches, who are the first to lose by the double process. . Historically it might be argued to be only the continuation of a movement which began more than 1,000 years ago. The original Scotia or Scotland, it has been recorded, was Ireland, and the Scoti or Scots, at their first appearance in authentic history, were the people of Ireland. Invaders from Ireland settled first in Argyll, and after long struggles with the native Piets were successful in obtaining the rule of the entire Kingdom, north of the Firths of Forth and Clyde, to which they gave the name of Scotland. The Piets and Scots gradually coalesced into one people. At a much later date it was Scotsmen, born in the larger isle, who were settled in Ulster, and the migration of to-day may Jie alternatively looked upon as a

reflux of that colonisation. Its explanation lies in tho industrialisation of tho Scottish towns—Glasgow in particular—and their modern growth, which have made more opportunities in them for Irish laborers. than they would have in, Ireland, Tho invasion may ho intensified by America’s new restrictions upon immigration, as a re-sult-of-which in the present ypar tho quota of Irish immigrants who can he admitted to the United Stales has been reduced from 28,000 to about 8,000. But apparently it is much limited to particular towns and. quarters of towns, because out of nearly live million inhabitants of-Scotland, as shown by the census of 1831, less than 160,000 were computed to have been born in Ireland. The outlook becomes alarming, however, when it is seriously predicted that, in 50 years’ time, Scotland may have ceased to bo Scotland, its nationality and its distinctive culture having beou entirely swamped. If it wore the flower of Ireland, instead of its least educated class, that was flocking into Scotland, that would he a prospect to bo lamented by all who would like to sco Scotland keep its own identity, which lias reason to be prized. And good Irishmen would prefer to see more of their people able to live prosperously in their Own country, with less inducement to cross tho sea. The Irish Free State census tlikcn last year showed a decline of 132,000 in tho last 15 years, after allowing for the withdrawal of tho British army of occupation, with its dependents.. Tho proportion ol natives of Ireland living abroad, in 1921, was the highest for any country in the world, and departures have not diminished under the self-government regime. 'Hie influx into Scotland, so far ns wo can see, cannot bo reduced by any British'or Scottish Act. But it would.be reduced, it might-bc ended almost entirely, if Ireland should become itself an industrial country, with more opportunities for its people and a wealth of more practical interests to dwarf politics—objects which the great Shannon -scheme, and other.measures of tho Free State Government’s policy have been designed,' however expensively and it may be riskily, to aid.