FROM NORTH OF TWEED

Otago Daily Times, Issue 19980, 23 December 1926, Page 17

FROM NORTH OF TWEED

A] LETTER TO OVEESEAS SCOTS. Written for the Otago Daily Times Bi Robket S. Angds. EDINBURGH, October 28. A prom at lire sample of winter with a certain amount of snow has been a re minder—if any had been needed —that the coal stoppage continues and has entailed a serious aggravation of the discomfort caused by the shortage of fuel. The air is again full of talk about efforts, to bring the dis pute to an end, but these should be treated with some reserve, or the owners are not likely to make any serious move so long as they believe, as they have some reason for doing, that the present drift of the miners back to the pits is certain to continue and increase. The movement is slow in Scotland, and the net gain during the past week has not been more than 1500. 1 should mention that my Socialist friends do not admit the accuracy of the official figures, as to the number of men at work, but I have no reason for doubting them. Meeting a Scottish coalowner the other day, I was much surprised to find him in a cheerful mood and more surprised still when he told me that he is making more money than he has done for the last two years. When I asked hint the reason, he explained that he had at his pit-heads thousands of tons of dross, which he could not sell ac any price before the stoppage. Now it is being eagerly bought at S 4 10s a ton. and he is thus being handsomely paid for being relieved of what had become a nuisance. Ho told me further that the one thing the owners are determined upon is to kill the Miners’ Federation as a wagenegotiating body. Thev regard the activities of its leaders as being purely political —designed, in the words of Mr Cook, to reduce the industry to such a point that the owners will be glad to clear out and leave nationalisation as the only alternative. Once that danger is banished, the .owners would be ready to enter into negotiations with the local unions, and to re-establish the conciliation boards, which as a rule, especially in Scotland, worked with great success. Meanwhile remain inflexibly opposed to any outside intervention. It may be true, they admit,_ that if the men have to surrender unconditionally, peace in the coal trade will be brief and precarious, but they prefer that danger to what they regard ns the certainty that, if the men are saved by outside assistance. Government or other, from the consequences of their leaders’ folly trouble will soon be renewed. MUNICIPAL ELECTIONS. Polling in the municipal elections is duo at the beginning of next week, but, so far as 1 can make out. the event is exciting little interest. In my early days the campaign used to last for weeks; now it is limited to vdays. Generally speaking, we do not conduct our municipal warfare on political party lines, but the tendency in the opposite direction is growing, largely because Socialism Jias the same policy in both spheres. Tnat party is making a general attack in all the large town wards where it has the least prospect of success, and its effort- in Glasgow is specially keen. In view of the fact that the Socialist minority there has done its best to bring municipal proceedings into contempt it might be expected that the citizens would concentrate on restoring the former prestige of the city for efficient local government. I am afraid, however, that the lamentable indifference w-hich hag hitherto prevailed will play into the hands of the Socialists, who, whatever their faults, set an example to their opponents in enthusiasm and thoroughness in electioneering. WOMEN UNIONISTS. For the first time the women Unionists of Scotland had a conference of their own this week, and about 2000 delegates were present from all parts of the country. A friend who was at the gathering tells me that it was a great success. He was particularly impressed by the ability of Lady Findlay of Aberlour, who presided over the first session, and also over the public meeting at which Lord Eustace Percy spoke. Those who expected that women would have a moderating influence on political controversy would not have found much support for their view. On several matters the ladies were keener to ’ go off at the deep end” than their male colleagues. In particular, they committed themselves to a hot protest against the immigration of Irish _ workers a strange view for a party which prides itself on being the special champion of Imperial unity. The official section would have been equally emphatic about reform of, the trade union laws, but Miss Margaret Kidd, our Scottish woman advocate, sidetracked the platform resolution by a much more cautiously-worded amendment. PLAYBOY POLITICS. At present the Edinburgh University students are in process of electing a lord rector, the candidates being Sir John Gilmour (Unionist), Mr J. M. - Keynes (Liberal), and Mr R. H. Tawney (Socialist). Happily for themselves, these gentlemen are not required to take any part in the contest. . In former clays outside political friends of the candidates were expected to speak on their behalf, but the rowdyism in which they found themselves involved has led to a gradual drying-up of that source of aid. Thus the elections have lost even the pretence of being a means of political education, and have degenerated into a mere carnival of horse-play. The favourite scheme in this fight is for each party to attempt to kidnap the leaders of the others. Thus the Unionists, who have apparently a substantial advantage in numbers, seized three of the Socialist officials and carried them on board a trawler at Granton, whence they were conveyed to Yarmouth. Reprisals have been attempted, and no prominent figure in the fight can appear in the streets without , a strong bodyguard of friends. Each of the parties has produced a paper in which undergraduate scurrility is given the fullest licence. The only extenuating circumstance is that the students confine their attentions to each other, though a mistake in identity involved a harmless young citizen in rather a disagreeable experience the other day. A VETERAN GRADUATE. By way of contrast to this levity of youth, 1 hasten to mention an incident which shows the more serious side of our academic life. We pride ourselves —not always with justice —on a love of learning for its own sake, but I have seldom found a more striking case than that of Mr James P, Dingwall, a postal sorting clerk, who at the age of 55, was capped M.A. of Edinburgh University last Saturday. Two years ago ho took the degiee of Bachelor of Commerce. Mr Dingwall began his post office service at Peterhead 39 years ago, and was the first Scottish candidate to pass the' entrance examination then established. Later ho was transferred to Edinburgh and there he has spent most of his spare time attending the University, specialising in literature, languages and science. No doubt if tie had applied the same amount of industry to his official duties he would have gained more rapid promotion, but he is evidently content to jog along in a position which leaves him leisure to gratify his thirst for learning. I do not say cases like this are numerous, but they are by no means exceptional. A friend of mine many years ago, a newspaper packer, earning about 30s a iveek, was a Greek scholar of some attainments and used to attend the ’ocal university lectures on that subject year after year. EDINBURGH BUSINESS MERGERS. Patrick Thomson Limited, drapers and warehousemen in the North Bridge, have decided to dispose of their business to another local firm whose name has not oeen disclosed. Their premises, which within the last 20 years have grown out of all recognition from the little single-windowed shop in which the business started, are not so much a shop as a public mstitution, known as “P.T." The late Mr Thomson (a brother of Professor Alexis ihomson, the famous surgeon) was one of the first shopkeepers in Edinburgh to realise (ho importance of a tea-room as an adjunct am! he made it a magnet which still draws the womon-folk from all over Edinburgh. It is by far the largest restaurant in Edinburgh. Messrs Thomson and Porteous, a tobacco manufacturing firm which has grown from small dimensions in an even shorter time, is about to oe absorbed by a London concern, but I gather the transaction will not affect the conduct of the business on its own lines. EDINBURGH MERCHANT COMPANY’S MASTER. Mr C. W. Allan, the new master of the Merchant Company of Edinburgh, is head of the well-known boot manufacturing firm which has a shop in Princes street and largo works at Merchiston. The reputation of the firm was laid by the production of hand-made boots, but it had to follow (he pressure of events and take to the factory system. Mr Allan is chairman of the Scottish Boot Manufacturers’ Association and of its arbitration cmi-nii. wktf-h ' • Loan la.«aßlv ’'-aacoaaihla

for the fact that in the last 30 years the trade has had no stoppage. Ho has been a director of the local Chamber of Commerce and has long taken an active part in the work of the Merchant Company, which plays 50 prominent a part in the educational and benevolent activities of the city. OBITUARY. Since I wrote last we have lost several outstanding citizens. Sir William Don, who was Lord Provost of Dundee during the whole of the war period and for two years afterwards, has died after a long illness, probably induced by the trying tiiaes he had during the post-war difficulties. Ho was a keen bowler and was captain of the British team which went to South Africa some years ago. Mr J. T. Salveson._ a member of the Scandinavian family which has been settled in Leith for two or three generations and has been prominent in the shipping, mercantile, and public life of the town, died at the ago of 72. He was a zealous volu.j'.eer. and for many years commanded the 7th battaliofi of the Royal Scots. Two of his sons were killed in the war. Sir Janies Balfour Paul, the retiring Lyon King at Arms, has suffered a heavy blow by the sudden death of his third son, a leading surgeon in Carlisle, who died suddenly during a visit of inspection to the hospitals of Holland. Elgin has lost one of its oldest public servants, in the person of Mr William Ramsay, who was for a quarter of a century a member of the Town Council, and for six years the Lord Provost. I 1 egret to announce also the death of an old friend of my own, Mr Lockhart A. Boyne, for over 40 years on the staff of the Inverness Courier, and during most of that time local correspondent of the principal London newspapers. Ho was known all over the North of Scotland both for his professional competence and for his enthusiastic love of music. Ho might, if he had chosen, have found a wider field for his abilities, but he preferred, perhaps wisely, to remain in his beautiful native town, whore ho was so well known and highly respected. ,