FROM NORTH OF TWEED

Otago Daily Times, Issue 22907, 15 June 1936, Page 5

FROM NORTH OF TWEED

LETTER TO OVERSEAS SCOTS Written for the Otago Daily Times. By Robert S. Angus. EDINBURGH, April 16. Whatever may be said for and against Scottish Home Rule, it is evident that its advocates have as much to fear from their friends as from their opponents. At the Easter conference of the National Party one speaker solemnly proposed that all insurance premiums should be required to be invested in Scotland. Presumably he would accept the corollary that no insurance company should spend in Scotland premiums which it had collected elsewhere. I doubt if wc should gain by such an arrangement. All the principal Scottish companies—and they are among the largest in existence—are world-wide in their operations, and their reputation for shrewd enterprise is unsurpassed. The primary concern of the directors is to earn us much interest as they safely can for the benefit of those who have insured with them, and they would not increase the confidence which is rightly felt in them if they were to be swayed by any other consideration, and especially if they were to aim at a Tibetan-like seclusion. The same is true of the banks. Finance knows no frontiers, and any attempts to make the Tweed into one would merely excite the derision of ..11 men who have practical experience. BETTER HOUSING. Sir Godfrey Collins has sent a letter to the chief Scottish towns urging them to use their power to appoint advisory committees in connection with their housing schemes in order that, as he said in a recent speech, there should not be " ugly houses on the plea of economy or costly houses on the plea of appearance." Anyone who has seen some of the recent efforts to provide dwellings in a hurry will appreciate the necessity for the Scottish Secretary's appeal. Even better than the formation of committees would be the appointment of expert architects, competent not merely to build a row of houses, but to lay out whole districts in an economical and seemly way. What can be done in that direction has already been shown by the small Renfrewshire town of Johnstone, which engaged Mr T. S. Tait, the designer of the new Government buildings in Edinburgh, and obtained a plan which promises to be an example to all who have a regard for the country's future. HERRING INDUSTRY. Parlous as is the condition of the Scottish herring industry, natural sympathy with those engaged in it must be diminished by the demands and threats of their leaders. They continue to clamour for grants to recondition their craft, although they have been repeatedly told that grants are impossible. They have been offered loans from the Herring Board, and Sir Thomas Whitson, chairman of that body, has received an assurance from the banks, already heavily involved in the industry, that they are agreeable to Government advances being regarded as a claim prior to theirs. Sir Thomas points oiit that the main cause of the present depression is the shrinkage of demand both at home and abroad and that the recovery to which he and his colleagues arc directing their efforts must be slow. On the whole, the outlook is more cheerful than it has been in the recent past, and it is difficult to believe that the old spirit of self-reliance is extinct among the fishermen of the North-East coast. FORTH AND TAY BRIDGES.

I am glad to see that the promoters of the schemes for road bridges across the Forth and the Tay have agreed to hold a conference. If the two groups were not so intent on their own project they would recognise that the case for* two bridges is much stronger than the case for one, and that is particularly true when the Government has made State assistance conditional on economic

justification being proved. Edinburgh has all along taken a short-sighted view and even now it is a long way behind Dundee with its preliminary arrangements. EDUCATION EXPENDITURE.

Glasgow has never been backward in its claims for' public money, but it received a sharp rebuke when it sent a deputation to ask for a larger share of the Scottish Education Fund. It was argued that owing to its special schools, medical treatment, and the provision of food and clothing, the'city receives from the State a smaller percentage of its total expenditure than the rest of Scotland. Sir Godfrey Collins pointed out that Glasgow, which has only 23 per cent, of the school population of Scotland already receives 38« per cent, of the fund. In other words —though the Scottish Secretary did not use them —Glasgow cannot expect to have a higher standard of educational expenditure at the cost of the country as a whole. OVERSEAS STUDENTS.

I cannot think there is much ground for the suggestion —made at the " East and West" conference of students —that young men and women who come from abroad are treated with aloofness by native undergraduates. Our universities have :as large a proportion of foreign students as any in the world; they are certainly numerous enough to prevent their feeling more isolated than does the young man or woman who arrives in Edinburgh or Glasgow from some Highland glen. There is much to be said for the proposal that more hostels should he provided with a holiday camp where newcomers could get to know each other. But hostels are generally more expensive than private lodgings and cheapness has hitherto been one of the great recommendations of Scottish university life. No doubt individualism has been excessive in the past, but in these days with unions and organisations of all sorts, no student with social instincts need feel lonely. SKILLED LABOUR SHORTAGE.

Skilled labour has been so overplentiful in recent years that news of a shortage is a pleasant change. The scarcity is particularly marked in engineering, shipbuilding, bespoke tailoring and, in some districts, bricklaying. Migration during the depression is one cause; the reluctance of lads to begin a long apprenticeship with the prospect of finding no work at the end of it is another. The scarcity, which is bound to become more acute with the revival of trade, is said to be particularly severe in shipbuilding. That is all the more serious in view of the continuance of new orders. Not merely has the Clyde greatly improved, but Dundee, which little more than a year ago had its yards empty, has now a dozen vessels on its books.

GLASGOW CRIME. A reflection of better times and increased spending power in Glasgow last year is the rise in the number of convictions for drunkenness, which reached the highest figure since 1930. When prosperity grows crimes against property should diminish, but that has not been Glasgow's experience. Chief Constable Sillitoe blames the carelessness of occupiers for most of the house-breaking, but lie admits that failure to obtain employment and the lack of parental control are largely responsible for the growth of crime among young persons. He thinks that the sentences oh malefactors are too'short; so far from having any deterrent effect they merely cause a temporary interruption in the criminal's activities. It is disquieting to find that in only one case out of four are the police able to make an arrest. LORD INVERNAIRN. Lord Invernairn, still better known as Sir William Beardmore, head of the great firm of that name, died at his home in Inverness-shire this week. He served his apprenticeship in Parkhead Forge, which belonged to his father, became its manager at the age of 30, and was in the prime of life at the outbreak of the European war, ready to respond to the call for effort on the

part of industry. At one time his firm employed 42,000 persons. That expansion meant a corresponding contraction when peace came, and the great yard at Dalmuir, with a frontage of over » mile to the river and 104 acres in extent, became largely superfluous. Lord Invernairn was a man of dauntless enterprise, and in later years it took the form of financing polar exploration. At the' end of the war he must haw been immensely wealthy, but probably a good deal of his money had disappeared by the time of his death. Readers of Mr David Kirkwood's autobiography will remember the impression he gives of his masterful and brusque but essentially kind-hearted and fair-minded employer. MR CHARLES RAMSAY.

Especially on the Penmurc and Brechin estates, which he administered during the 10 years' minority of his nephew, the thirteenth. Earl of Dalhousie, the death of the Hon. Charles M. Ramsay will cause sincere regret.- To all who knew him he was "Charlie," a cheery and kindly soul.- He had-a few months as M.P. for Forfarshire, but he lost the seat in 1895 and.failed to regain it in 1900. A year or two ago I was invited to meet him at dinner, and, not having seen him for more than 30 years, I was delighted to find that, though he had had several hard blows- —the death of his beautiful American wife and the loss of a good part of his fortune—adversity had not soured him. The present Earl of Dalhousie is his grandnephew.