FROM NORTH OF TWEED

Otago Daily Times, Issue 19069, 15 January 1924, Page 5

FROM NORTH OF TWEED

"RET) CrATTVrLKT" MAA'TTPCRIPT.

By Robert S. Angus.

A LETTER TO OVERSEAS SCOTS. Written for the Otago Daily Times.

EDINBURGH, November 29. My poverty in the matter of other news and not my will consents to a large part of this week's letter being again devoted. to the general election. For the present it eclipses all other topics. Nomination day on Monday sufficed to return only seven out of our 73 members, the number of unopposed returns expected having been reduced by the reprisal candidatures which all the parties have foolishly undertaken. Of the seven, throe sit for the Universities. The party whips have for some years had covetous eyes on the seat of Sir Henry Craik. They badly need it for the Lord Advocate, who has had to seek refuge (which he may not find) in Carlisle. But when it was suggested to him that he had reached the age when he was entitled to retire (Sir Henry verges on 80), the hint was met with such a reception that no one has dared to repeat it. Sir George Berry, as the nominee of the doctors, is equally immovable, and even had his recent ill-health—now disappeared—necessitated his retirement, his pla-ce would have been claimed by another member of his profession. Mr D. M. Cowan, the Liberal member of the University trio, is the spokesman of the teachers, and equally beyond challenge. The Scottish University voters now number over 31,000, not all of them, of course, within easy reach of the returning officer. LUCKY CANDIDATES. All four of the other unopposed members are young in years and political experience, and may count themselves fortunate in having their lines cast in such pleasant places, when many of their seniors are having to fight for their parliamentary life. Sir Archibald «Sinclair, who has been returned for Caithness and Sutherland, came in only a year ago, with a term as Mr Winston , Churchill's private secretary as his only political -experience. Mr lan Macpherson (Ross and Cromarty) was at one time threatened, with trouble in his own party camp, but it faded away. In any case he was in no for he has considerable Ministerial experience, and he is a fluent speaker both in English and Gaelic. Sir Charles Barrie was returned unopposed for Banff, his third experience of the kind. As he hails from Dundee, his business as a shipowner gives him a practical knowledge of the maritime interests of his constituents. Major Dudgeon, the other unopposed member, comes from the opposite end of the country—Galloway. He is a local man, an important consideration in those parts, and as a farmer and landowner is well qualified for his job. It may be no more than a coincidence, but it is an interesting fact that all five of the Scottish Liberal members so far returned belonged to the National or Lloyd Georgian wing of the .party. UNIONIST HOPES. I have no intention of repeating what. 1 said last week about the outlook in the constituencies, and. since the event is seven days nearer, still less inclination to indulge in forecast. All I can do is to put it on record that the Unionists are now taking a less modest view of their chances than they did. They are confident that the Duchess of Atholl will win West Perth; they have hopes of the Earl of Dalkeith in Roxburgh; and a north country friend "assures me that there is a likelihood of the Hon. James Stuart turning Mr Miaule Guthrie out of Elgin and Nairn. Mr Stuart is e big handsome fellow, of pleasant manners, and it will be remembered that a few months ago he married the Duke of Devonshire's daughter, Lady Rachel Cavendish, whom the gossips had selected as a bride for the Prince of Wales. General Cfcarteris has a sporting 1 ,chance in Dumfries, and it would cause no surprise if Sir Harry Hope recovers West Stirling. The farmers are particularly keen to see him back at Westminster. Against these Unionist hopes, has to be set the probability that Dumbarton (which Sir William' Raerrurn held a year ago by .the skin of his teeth), and North Midlothian, for which Mr ClarkHutchison sits, will be lost, a.nd Central Glasgow is regarded as certain to go Labour. LABOUR POSITION. I gather that neither Liberals nor Unionists have much hope of shaking the Labour hold in the west. Cathcart and possibly MarkMll will be recovered, and so may also one or both of the Renfrewshire ee-a-ts, but otherwise little change is expected on balance. In West Fife Mr William Adamson is being opposed by another Labour member, a sequel to the feud which has been in progress among the miners there. The figures will show that the "Reds" are an insignificant majority, for Mr Adamson can count on Liberal as well as Tory votes, and the chances are that his challenger will forfeit his £l5O deposit. Mr Newbould, our one and only Communist, is likely to disappear from Motherwell. LIBERALS HOPEFUL. Their recent reunion has raised the hopes of the Liberals, and the occasion has been celebrated by the appearance of Mr Lloyd George on Mr Asquith's platform at Paisley. That constituency now looks doubly safe, since the Labour men have fallen out among themselves, a section refusing to support the official candidate of the party because he is a house-factor, a class wh>ch is anathema to West Country Socialists at present. The Liberals should hold all their present seats, and no doubt poll better in the others, but I do not see many which promise them absolute victories. THE WESTERN ISLES. On the face of it, the task of Betting out to contest the Western Isles at this time of the year looks hopeless, but it has been undertaken in a dashing spirit on behalf of the Unionists by Captain AV. S. Morison, M.C. The fact that he is a native of Uist and speaks Gaelic fluently gives him a great advantage, and when I saw him on his way to the fight he was confident that he would give the others a surprise. Tiey are Mr Mackenzie Livingstone (Liberal), who is a paper merchant in London and has only a smattering of Gaelic, and ex-Provost M'Cowan, of Oban, who is standing for Labour. The latter will have some difficulty in denouncing the landlords in Lewis, seeing that the crofters there have been offered their land as a gift and have refused to take it. Captain Morison, whose career at Edinburgh was interrupted by the war in which he distinguished himself, was president of the Students' Union, and a popular figure with the under-graduates. At present he is secretary to Sir Thomas Inskip, the'English Solicitor-General, for whom he does much speaking, and can often get a hearing from an audience when his cnief fails. The rea?on, he modestly explained to me, was that they liked to hear" him because his accent reminded them of Harry Lauder. Captain Morison was called to the English bar a week ago, and his friends predict a great career for him there. TEMPERANCE POLLS, In the course of the week several more polls have been taken under the Scottish Temperance Act. The Tosulls give no encouragement to the "No License" party. Dundee, Dumbarton, Dingwall, Blairgowrie, Crieff, and Thurso have all declared by substantial majorities against any change. THE NEW MODERATORS. This week the Moderators of the three General Assemblies of next year have been nominated. All of them are men who are little known to the general public outside their own locality, since they have devoted themselves more to their parochial work than to the proceedings of the Church courts. Dr Cuthelsj the parish minister of Hawick! has spent '.he whole of his ministerial career in that district where lie is widely respected for his shrewdness and energy. He is a native of Forfarshire, and before he studied for the ministry he was in business for eight years in Dundee. The Rev. A <■' Tnch, who is to preside over the United Free Church, is a Blairgowrie man, who served for nine years in Willison Church. Dundee, and ha 3 bom for about a quarter of a century in Dumbarton, where he s popular with all classes and denomination The Free Church, as usual, has gone to tl-K north f-r its Moderator—on this occasion t' l Rev. Krnnuth Cameron, of Stornoway. Ito was a divinity student at the time of tV Church Union in 1900, and was one of ■> handful who refused to accept it. To that fact lie ov.-»s the attainment of a pn*ifVrwhich would have been beyond him if he had joined the larger church. FOOT-AND-MOUTH DISEASE. The farmers are exceedingly anxious at the widespread dimensions now assumed bv th" epidemic of foot-and-mouth disease. It i<j making its iippearance in various ports of flip country, and there are "rave fours for th" the safety of some of the pedigree herds in the nortn. The Edinburgh fat stock show which was to have be"n held next morHh. and attended by the Prince of Wales, has been abandoned, so n» to reduce the danr"-r involved in the movement of stock. Tim disease is causing heavy loss, not oTily thvousrh the wholesale- slaughter of cattle on the affected fanns. but bv (he stoppage of the exnort of purebred animals. ABERDEEN GRAM.MAR SCHOOL. Old boys of Aberdeen Grammar School wi'P need no more than an intimation that tho roll of pupils has nt last been published by the Rosemount Press. It covers the period between 1795 and 1919, and contains no fewer than 13,000 names, of which 8000 belong to the last 60 years. The roll was almost ready in 1914. but the war delayed its issue and added to the difficulties of the editor in compiling the individual records of old boys. Mr Theodore Watt has performed his labour of love with remarkable thoroughness.

Mr H. P. Macmillan, K.C., who we.s the leading- spirit in the movement for the transfer of the Advocates' library aa the nucleus of a Scottish National Library, has presented to it tho manuscript of Scott's novel. " Redgauntlet." Until recently it was in the possession of Mr J. H. Stevenson, K.C., grandson of Scott's publisher, Cadell. It was sold by auction in London a few weeks for £520, and Mr Macmillan has now bought it for the nation. This characteristic act is only smother proof of Mt Mncmillan's enthusiasm for the National Library scheme. He is by far our most, successful advocate, for not "onlv does he have as mnny books at the Scottish bar as his strength enables him to undertake, but ho has the cream of the v.-o'/k at the parliamentary bar,"and he is standing counsel in the House of Lords for the Southern Railway and other important corporations, a petition which no Scottish advocate has hitherto attaint**.