FROM NORTH OF TWEED.

Otago Daily Times, Issue 19616, 21 October 1925, Page 11

FROM NORTH OF TWEED.

A LETTER TO OVERSEAS SCOTS. Written for the Otago Daily Times. By Robert S. Angus. EDINBURGH, September 3. If the trains going south are crowded with returning holidaymakers the incoming trains are no loss packed, so that on balance our population is as swollen and as mixed ns it was at tho beginning of last month. In the last few fine days Princes street, which every visitor to Scotland feels it a religious duly and an aesthetic exaltation to “do,” has presented the Empire in finely framed miniature. For this purpose I should include America in the Empire, for these transatlantic cousins of ours are even move emphatic than our Dominion brothers and sisters in asserting common heritage. And with less reserve they like the opportunity of following royalty. The. slow progress of the Queen to Balmoral pave them what they considered a “Heaven sent chance.” and tile visit of Princess Mary to Edinburgh on Saturday, when she presented colours to tho Queen’s Edinburgh Territorial Battalion of the Roval Scots, of which she is Co!onel-in-Chief, afforded them splendid scope for studying our relations with our ruling family. Even Englishmen are sometimes puzzled bv the marked partiality of the Royal Family for Scotland and Scotsmen, but, following the fashion so nobly set, they cross the border in crowds, and we, who understand, hospitable welcome Ihem and accept their generous admiration. NATIONAL WAR MEMORIAL. It was flattering and amusing to observe tho manner in which the Princess instructed her husband. Viscount Lascelles, in the history and beauties of the Castle. She was .the native initiating the near stranger, and, for his benefit she made the custodian of Queen Mary’s room re-tell the famous story of how in the night the infant Prince .Tamos, afterwards James I of England, was lowered in a basket, from the window of (ho tiny adjoining apartment in which he had been born, Tho special purpose of the Princess’s visit to the Castle was to inspect tho progress of tho .Scottish National War Memorial. Tho scheme, which has been retarded owing to tho lack of skilled labour, is slowly but. steadily taking shape. It will bo recalled that tho design consists of the conversion of tho old disused barrack building, known as “Billing’s Building,” into a gallery of honour, and the erection of a shrine abutting against the north side of this old building. While the structure of tho shrine —tho most intricate and difficult part of the work—is progressing the decorative work is also being pushed on. Running round the shrine below the seven stained glass window's is to be a bronze frieze in flat relief, and in this types of all who served in the Avar are being represented—men and women, horses, mules, dogs; even the carrier pigeons are not forgotten. The designs and full-size drawings have been prepared by Mr Morris MeredithWilliams, and actual modelling is being carried out by his wife. These artists working together have the most enthusiastic encouragement and help from Admiral Sir Reginald Tyrwhitt (till recentlv in command at Rosyth) and General Sir Walter BraithAvaite, of the Scottish Command, who have produced fine types of men to pose as models Avith historically correct uniform and equipment. If the present rate of progress is maintained it is honed that the structural Avork will ho completed in the autumn of 1926, and the building ready for dedication in the summer of the following year. ANGLICISING SCOTTISH REGIMENTS. I shall bo interested, if unconvinced bv the reply which Sir Lamong Worthington Evans has promised to make personally to the complaint of the St. Andrews Society that there is a general Anglicisation of Scottish regiments and an “unexplainable repugnance” to placing Scottish regiments on the same footing as English. Like Mr Conner, M.P., I think the idea Avas apparent when the depot of the Royal Scots Greys Avas removed from Pklnburgh to Canterbury and tho regiment transferred to Palestine in contravention of tho grant bestowed by Queen Victoria that the regiment should never in peace time Ire sent on garrison duty abroad. Though the regiment was debarred from recruiting in Edinburgh, tho English regiment which supplanted it there Avas permitted to recruit freely. Again, the same idea was obviously present when that most Scottish of all Lowland regiments, the Cameronians. was debarred from recruiting in its own territory in Lanarkshire, and restricted to Hendon and Northern Ireland, while the barrack gates at Hamilton, its own depot, and other public places in Motherwell, Coatbridge, and Wishaw wore boplastercd with posters calling upon young men to join tho Irish Guards. HERRING RECORD.

With so much depression in other parts of the country it is pleasant to know that the herring harvest lias been so successful and that a record season for small herring has changed « dark outlook to one of keen expectation regarding (ho prospects of tho coining Yarmouth fishing. Tho Bukie fleet is quite satisfied. Tho season has been abnormal in several respects, not the least buing the curtailment from 13 to 10 weeks owing to tho Yarmouth herring blocking tho Continental market. _ hut on that account prices have been high The host result" wore obtained by the boats which innded their fish at Stronsay and Storhoway The average gross earnings of the steam drifters for the season ha%o been £9OO per boat, with a range of £4CO to £2200, and it is estimated that the tota. earnings reach a quarter of a million. Several boats have gone to Irish waters, where, the largest fleet; on record has assembled. THE FISHERMAN’S WIFE. Meantime Mr Ramsay MacDonald, who, because he was Prime Minister, likes to advertise himself as a “Lossio loon,’ has been saying nice things about tho fisherman’s wife. Taking part in the annual picnic at Aborloiir of veteran Lossiemouth fishermen, Mr MacDonald recalled that he once asked Mr Robertson, of the Orpheus Choir, what ho thought of the Lossie Choir. “It is all right,” replied Mr Robertson; “it has great promise; but the great trouble seems to bo that the men never lead, but always leave their wives and women folks to do it for them.” That, commented Mr MacDonald, had always been tho trait of Lossie folk, the reason being that tho men could never get on without tne women. Tho fisherman’s wife, he said, was far and away tho better man of the two. The reporter records that tho fishermen heartily cheered the observation which shows anothei fine trait in their character. WHISKY AND OIL CRISIS.

But it is not so well with whisky and shale. If the more interesting, the whisky position will not bring so much unemployment as the depressed conditions in tho shale oil industry. At a largely-attended meeting of North of Scotland distillers in Elgin this week it was decided to reduce the whisky production in tho coming distilling season by 25 per cent. The decision has been brought about by tho accumulation of stocks ns a result of the high duty on whisky, which is actually 12 times tho cost of the spirit. The drastic reduction in tho output will introduce the risk of unemployment and short time to Speysido distilling towns like Dufftown, Rothes, and Al’criour which, since the war. have been working at such high pressure that the dole is practically unknown from one end of the long strath to the other. It will also react unfavourably on tho harbour revenues of Lossiemouth, Buckie, Burghead, and other Moray Firth ports. The oil crisis, however, is more serious. Owing to the condition of the industry notice has been given of a partial closing down of works and mines, to take place as from the middle of the month, while the men still employed are to bo asked to consent to a 10 per cent, reduction of wages. Two thousand workers in Broxburn, Dalmeny, West ('alder, and Tarbrax will he thrown out of employment, and tho prospects are not improved by the threat of the others to resist tho wage reduction. Industrially, the one bright, spot comparatively is Ihei fact that Scottish seamen so far have held aloof from tho unofficial strike against the £1 a week reduction. The fact that Mr Shin well has left Glasgow to conduct the strike at Liverpool, where ho is less well known, ig a significant sign. CHURCH UNION. Fortunately the religious atmosphere continues to improve. I know nothing belter than the sweeter relations that now prevail among Presbyter inns. The Very Rev. Dr Tohn White, the Moderator of tho Church of Scotland, for instance, has just concluded a successful and promising official visit to Lochcarron Presbytery. Tho arrangements made for hie visit to Ullapool on Sunday included a unitor! service in tho parish church in the evening, but the moderator improved on this by suggesting and attending a united service in tho U.F. Church in the forenoon. In this ho took part and the sermon was preached bv the ex-moderator of the Presbyterian Church of South Africa —the Very Rev. 15. MacMillan, of Pretoria, who is (ho son of a former minister of the Free ChiuJi of Ullapool and 'ho occasion was