FROM NORTH OF TWEED

Otago Witness, Issue 3775, 20 July 1926, Page 26

FROM NORTH OF TWEED

'A LETTER TO OVERSEAS SCOTS. Dr Robert S. Angus. EDINBURGH, June 3. Those who claim to see an early end to the coal stoppage must have greater powers of vision than mine. To all appearances the suicidal quarrel is likely to go on for some time—an estimate which I give with trepidation in view of Mr Lloyd George’s recent unfortunate experience in prophecy on the general strike. So far as I can see, the mood of most of the men Is that which was expressed in similar circumstances many years ago, when an old miner was asked how long he meant to old out. “Haud oot!” he exclaimed, “I’ll haud oot til lthe auld wife at Windsor is gathering sticks in her apron.” It is easier to hold out nowadays, for the local authorities and various benevolent societies are feeding the children, and though there are no union funds to speak of, the men seem able to rub along somehow. I am far from saying that the men are unanimous in their approval of the policy of their leaders. Some of them at least would be willing to work longer hours if the present rate of wages could be maintained. But that does not impair their wonderful loyalty. Another remarkable feature of the dispute is its orderliness. That is mainly due to the fact that that on this occasion no attempt has been made to withdraw the safety men. PARALYSIS OP INDUSTRY. Meanwhile, the creeping paralysis which is overtaking all forms of industry dependent on coal is extending. The railway services are cut down to a minimum. Most of the steel works are stopped, and the shipbuilding yards are in process of Stopping. The textile trades are living on stocks of fuel that are fast diminishing. The trawlers and steam denied supplies of home coal, are resorting to the Continent for bunkers, and the same is true of tramp steamers. Happily a spell pf warmer weather has made the drastic reductions in domestic fuel less serious. Altogether it is a bad business, which must leave its traces for many a dtfy on our industrial prosperity. STRIKE SEQUELS. The newspaper industry is still suffering from the results of the general strike. The Glasgow Herald and its allied evening papers are determinedly carrying out their deoision that for the future they will have a non-union office, and I believe a considerable part of the staff is sleeping on the premises in order to avoid interference by outsiders. The Lanarkshire, miners are boycotting the evening papers and patronising the Glasgow News, which is conducted on union lines. In Dundee

the Messrs Thomson, who own both, have decided that the temporary amalgamation of the Advertiser and the Courier is to be permanent —a development which must amaze those who remember the relations between, and the respective positions of these journals 30 years ago. In Aberdeen the Press and Journal is also being published as a non-union enterprise, and though it has not yet got back to its full size it has the appearance of having surmounted its worst difficulties. The journalists and the many skilled craftsmen who 1 _*e been thrown out of work by these changes will long have cause to regret the thoughtlessness with which they responded to the call of the Trade Union Congress in breach of their contracts. THE GENERAL ASSEMBLIES. The General Assemblies of the three Presbyterian Churches, which were adjourned three weeks ago in consequence of the general strike are now in session. The attendance is naturally below the normal, and the social gatherings which usually attend them are- being curtailed. Lord Elgin, as Lord High Commissioner, went into residence at Holvrood Palace on Monday night, and is holding a scries of dinners and receptions. He hopes to have the Prime Minister as his guest at the beginning of next week on the occasion of his flying visit to receive the freedom of the city, but the industrial situation may require the postponement of that engagement. It is probable that the abnormal conditions will tend to shorten the assembly'sittings. They had a deputation of the miners' leaders before them the other day to state their case. AN AGRICULTURAL PROBLEM Almost the only industry which is not affected by the coal stoppage is agriculture, but it has a problem of its own at present. After being immune for two years, while England was suffering severely, we have now an outbreak of foot-and-mouth disease to face. The one fortunate feature of the incident is that the source of outbreak has been unmistakeably traced. It was found in a consignment of pig carcases imported from Holland for the bacon-curing factory at Carluke. A Continental origin for the British outbreaks has long been suspected—in particular straw packing—and it is something gained to nave the matter placed beyond doubt. The importation of dead pigs from Holland has been stopped and it is believed that . all the affected carcases have been traced. The experience has at least one moral—that we should rear enough pigs ourselves to make our factories independent of Continental supplies of raw material. EDINBURGH MEDICAL BICENTENARY. Next week the medical faculty of Edinburgh University will attain the bicentenary of its formation steps are being taken to celebrate the occasion appropriately. Representatives and distinguished visitors from the principal medical schools and tho societies of the world have been

invited, and every effort will be made to provide them with both scientific and social The central feature of the proceedings will be the formal opening of the reconstructed department of Surgery, with its facilities for research, provided means of a grant of £50,000 from the Rockefeller foundation of New York. A dinner will be given by the Royal College of physicians which, along with the Town Council of Edinburgh, was primarily responsible for the establishment of the faculty in 1726. One gratifying feature of the guests—list it that so many of the representatives of medical societies and graduates of Edinburgh. ANCIENT RECORDS. A departmental committee has recommended that all local legal records dating back before 1876 should be. removed to Edinburgh and placed under the care of a records authority tor safe custody and public study. I believe that in nearly all our older towns which are the seat of a sheriff’s iurisdiction there are many old documents of great historical interest and value, which are being allowed to rot in cellars, a prey to damp and vermin. These papers have long ceased to be of personal or local interest, but in competent hands they can be made to throw vivid light on the life of bygone times, especially the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. They need to be fully examined and indexed, and money should be made available for the publication of those that are of general interest. Under present conditions, they are in danger of being ruined. THE SCOTTISH ZOO. Those who remember tl.e many years of agitation which were required to found the Scottish Zoological Gardens must read with satisfaction the annual record of progress and development issued by the directors. Year by year they have been able out of surplus revenue to add to the attractiveness of the place, and during the year under review they have had the largest number of visitors on record. Having acquiring an adjoining golf course, the directors have now the opportunity of making the Scottish Zoo the largest place of its kind in the world, as well as one of the best. That means that a capital sum of at least £25,000 will have to be raised, and the necessary stepj are being taken. It' must be a source of great pleasure to Lord Salvesen, who was the pioneer of the movement to establish a zoo, that he has lived to see it so triumphantly fulfilled. SIR JAMES CANTLIE. I was sorry to read this week of the death of Sir James Cantlie, who for many years carried on a successful medical practice in London. He was in the best sense of the word “a character.’ 1 Alike in ideas and his mode of expressing them, he was as far removed as possible from the commonplace, and whether he was urging on medical students their duty to join the R.A.M.C., telling elderly people of the value of ’’physical jerks, 'or warning old

ladies of the dangers of tea-drinking, he had the knack, which was, in fact, a gift, of putting his views in a memorable way. Perhaps he suffered a little from his reputation as a humorist. His hearers w T ere never quite sure . hen he meant himself to be taken seriously. My own associations with him were social and not professional. I have seldom heard a man who could tell Aberdeenshire stories or sing a Scottish song with greater gusto, and he derived as much enjoyment from them as his hearers did. Though he was well over 70 and had to retire from practice a year or two ago, he retained his zest of life to the end. He was an authority on many branches of his profession from tropical diseases —the result of nine years’ residence in Hongkong—to Shysical training. Contemporary with Dr litchell Bruce, Sir David Ferrier,. and Dr Shirra Gibb, he belonged to a generation which did much to enhance the standing of Aberdeen as a medical school. OUR MUSICAL FESTIVALS. The musical festival movement has grown so gradually in our midst that it was something of a surprise to find in my ntorning paper the other day no fewer than three columns devoted to the record of these gatherings in various parts of the country. That fact alone may be taken as a sign that it has established itself firmly. The competitive element no doubt grates on the believers in “art for art’s sake,” but presumably it is necessary in order to stimulate interest. Local choirs are now followed with as much keenness as the doings of the local football club, and the merits of individual vocalists are canvassed with something approaching asceYljity. This week Edinburgh has had its meeting, at which Mr St. John Ervine adjudicated on the reading and recitations, and Sir Richard Terry on the music. Both had many encouraging, as well as challenging, things to say. Sir Richard thinks that one of the defects of oui performers is excessive shyness, but he regards that as a fault on virtue’s side. As an evidence that there may be much unsuspected talent in our midst he mentioned that a domestic servant has been discovered, who has, if any woman ever had, the voice of a great singer, and that a fund is being raised to supply her with the necessary training. At the Aberdeen festival prominence is given to the playing and the dancing of reels and strathspeys, as well as to folk dancing, which is more of an imported art. At all the gatherings special attention is given to the juniors, and the enthusiasm assurance that the movement will grow. After all, it may prove that we are not shown by the young people is the best so unmusical a people as we have been prone to believe.