FROM NORTH OF TWEED

Otago Daily Times, Issue 22628, 20 July 1935, Page 25

FROM NORTH OF TWEED

LETTER TO OVERSEAS SCOTS Written for the Otago Daily Times. By Rodeut S. Angus. EDINBURGH, May 30. Assembly time is almost over again. By to-morrow afternoon the ministers and elders will have concluded their business and dispersed to all parts of Scotland, the Duke and Duchess of Kent will leave Holyrood on the following morning, and the city will have resumed its every-day aspect. On the whole, it has been a successful if unexciting period. The Church of Scotland has many difficult and some discouraging problems, but none of them has stirred controversies such as in the old days roused passionate debates. Dr White reported that the church lias in hand building schemes estimated to cost about £220,000, and that he can lay his hands on every penny of that amount, having gifts or promises amounting to £170,000, phis £IO,OOO offered by Mr George W. Macfarlane, and eight churches to he built at the expense of the Baird Trust, Foreign mission activity has had to be curtailed owing to lack of but otherwise the finances of the church are satisfactory. Dr Marshall Lang has made an admirable Moderator, and though the assembly of 1935 will not stand out preeminently, it has shown that the church is in a sound and prosperous condition. LORD HIGH COMMISSIONER’S ROUND. The Duke and Duchess of Kent have .had an arduous ton days of official and social duties, attending the assembly daily, laying foundation stones, visiting hospitals and social settlements, spending a day in Glasgow where they had a long round of official engagements, inspecting the Royal Scottish Academy and the Botanic Gardens, giving a garden party at Holyrood—in the coldest of weather—and entertaining large numbers of guests at dinner every evening. One wonders what the Duchess-thought of it all? It was her first experience of the duties likely to fall to her lot, and. in a land to which she is still little more than a stranger, it may have been a little trying. Of one thing she can have been left in no doubt—the cordiality of her welcome. The streets of Edinburgh have never been more crowded at assembly time or the cheering more spontaneously hearty. THE FREE CHURCH. Since the Union of the Church of Scotland and the United Free Church, the proceedings of the Free Church Assembly, otherwise the “Wee Frees,” have received less and less attention. Apart from the day on which the Duke and Duchess of Kent paid the usual courtesy visit, the assembly brought itself into notice by a squabble, which I cannot avoid calling characteristic. The upshot of it was an announcement by Professor ■ Kennedy Cameron, the clerk of the assembly, that he means to resign that post, a step which he subsequently agreed to delay for one year. The reasons, are too obscure for my comprehension, but the professor regards himself as protesting against “ an undermining of the Presbyterian government of the church.” He is one of the survivors of the little band which refused to take part in the union of 1900 and subsequently fought the successful legal battle with the majority. Another member of it, Mr Rounsfell Brown, now the treasurer, also threatens to resign for a reason which is easily understood, a proposal to dock his salary of £350 by £SO. * Mr Brown, - a Glasgow solicitor, has given over 30 years of devoted work to the church, and if it -is unable to pay him decently it must be financially in a bad way. However, the proposed reduction is to be reconsidered. EDINBURGH FREEMEN. The Edinburgh Town Council has decided to confer its honorary freedom on Air Lyons, the Australian Prime Minister, the Maharajah of Patiala, and Lord Tweedsmuir (Mr John Buchan that was), Governor-Designate of Canada. Incredible and discreditable as it may seem, the spokesman of the Protestant group opposed the inclusion of Mr Lyons on the ground that he is a Roman Catholic, and threatened that on the day of the presentation he will have 80,000 citizens in the streets to make a demonstration of protest. Oddly enough, no objection was taken to the Maharajah on the ground that he is a Hindu. Only two members of the council voted in the minority, but in their present fanatical mood they may provoke street scenes which the great mass of the community will regard with disgust. SHIPPING DEVELOPMENT. When it was announced that the Anchor Line hafl been bought by Messrs Runciman, Ltd., of Loudon, fears were entertained that not merely the management but the sailings of the ships might be removed from Glasgow. The new owners have given a public assurance that the business will he carried on under the same conditions as before, with the exception that the service will he improved, and that tenders have already been issued for at least two new ships, probably to be built on the Clyde. “We are a Glasgow concern,” declared Mr Philip Runciman, “and we shall certainly give the Clyde first preference in everything.” FIFE COAL SHIPMENTS.

During last week over 86,000 tons of coal were shipped at Methil dock, the highest figure on record. It is a sign of two things—the rapid development of the Fife coalfield and the gradual recovery of the export trade, especially Scotland’s share of it. The industry generally is still far below its pre-war prosperity, but the trade agreements with North European countries are having their effect, and the selling schemes which the coal owners have organised are mitigating the ruinous competition which prevented them taking advantage of the available markets. ■ AN ART ACQUISITION.

One of the most important acquisitions of recent times is announced by the trustees of the Scottish National Galleries —Eaeburn’s portrait of Sir Walter Scott. It was painted in 1823, and is well known through William Walker’s fine engraving of it. hor the present it is being shown in the National Gallery, but it will ultimately be transferred to the Portrait Gallery in Queen street. At the sale of the Raeburn family’s collection it realised £325 10s; at the Burdett-Coutts sale in 1922 it brought £9OOO, and in that year it went to the United States for £12,000. At that time Mr Ramsay MacDonald made a strenuous effort to secure it for Scotland, but was just too late, and it will be a satisfaction to him that his failure has been made good, especially as the price now paid is understood to bo loss than was asked for them. Raeburn painted four portraits of Scott, two full length, of which one remains at Abbotsford and the other belongs to the Duke of Buccleuch. and two head-and-shouldor portraits, one of them now owned byLord Montagu and the other the one which is now public property. It has the additional interest that it is believed to be the last canvas Raeburn painted. The National Gallery has now nearly 40 examples of his work.

HOLYROOD ROYAL PORTRAITS. Efforts arc again being quietly made to have the so-called portraits of the Scottish kings removed from the gallery at Holyrood Palace and replaced by the Mortlake tapestries, which, when they were temporarily shown there, seemed as if they iss-4 h°^- n ismed for

place. But the matter hag to be gone about with some circumspection. As works of art the canvases have little value—they were painted in a hatch by a Dutch artist, De Windt, in the time of Charles ll—and as likenesses they, have none. But they have a certain antiquarian interest, and some of our perfervid patriots are up in arms against their removal. To bo frank, the “ kings ” look a ruffianly lot, and, one would have thought, enough to put the Lord High Commissioner’s guests off their food at this week’s dinner parties. It is suggested that the tapestries might be hung over the pictures so that the latter could still be shown when desired, I should think the occasions would be few, but the compromise would solve the difficulty of knowing where to put them. SCOTTISH SECRETARY.

By the time these lines arc printed the public will know whether the impending . reconstruction of the Government has entailed any change in the alministration of Scotland. Sir Godfrey Collins has been named as one of those who are likely to be replaced, but that is an experience shared by almost all his Treasury bench colleagues. I think it right to put on record, before the event, my view that it would bo a misfortune if he were not continued in his present post. Of all the Scottish Secretaries I have known —and I have known *all of them during the last 40 years—none has shown a keener interest in his duties, greater anxiety to take public opinion along with him, or as much application of business methods to civil service procedure. His best friends would not claim that lie is a good debater, hut during his three years lie has secured the passage of much useful legislation and he has carried administrative devolution subustantially further. I can imagine no change which would he for the tetter, and I say so in spite of the fact that Mr Walter Elliot has been suggested as a possible successor.