SCOTLAND TODAY
SIR,--It is interesting that our Scottish Grand Chain, Hugh MacDiarmid, should have made an article out of my book Scotland Past and Present, but it dads seem a little hard that he should complain
(1) that a volume in the Home University Library costing 7s. 6d. is small; (2) that a discussion of the past and present does not contain polemics about the precise form of government most suitable for Scotland in the future; (3) that 1 have failed to denounce with proper violence a report on education which had not appeared when the book was piintcd. • Like my Oxford copy of verses, the mention of which so infuriates him, the splendidly questioning poetry of Hugh MacDiarmid's younger days is some decades away. He is now Christopher Grieve, LLD, the most picturesque figure in our Scottish Estab- lishment. honourably pensioned by the State. He feels, as the Established arc apt to do. that if the right minority keeps pushing in the right direction all will go well with the country.
He will find, if he looks at the book again, that all the reasons for optimism he suggests are men- tioned there. Influences and developments on the other side arc listed too. If the will to overcome these obstacles is in the Scottish people they can certainly be liquidated fairly quickly, but this will not happen of itself, and it seems very desirable that the people should be encouraged to know where their country actually stands now.—Yours faithfully,
J. M. REID 2 Glencairn Drive, Glasgow, SI
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