Although neither ignorance nor distortion are out of place in
attacking what Mr. Joad, whimsically inverting his commas, calls the ' rights ' of the propertied classes " he should, we think, have mentioned that considerable distress and unemployment would be caused in many parts of Scotland if the Access to Mountains and Moorlands Bill became law, as he recommends that it should. For it is a regrettable fact that in the " waste, wild places " to which he refers there exist—apart from the beastly landlords—numbers of full-blown citizens, and that these scattered Highland communities depend for their economic existence almost entirely on the fact that they live on or near a deer-forest—in most cases, that is to say, on land which two select committees and two royal com- missions have declared in recent years to be useless for any purpose other than stalking. Unfortunately the sporting rights of a deer-forest to which even small numbers of the general public are admitted during August, September, and October would become valueless, however well-behaved the intruders ; for—alas—a Vice-President of the Anti-Litter League smells the same to a stag as the most Philistine of tourists. Still, however much sentimentalists may deplore the depopulation of the Highlands, there is comfort in the thought that the landlords will be among the first to go. Mr. iced ought to go and point that out to the families of the stalkers and ghillies.
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