21 JUNE 1945, Page 22

Shorter Notice

To the traditional view of Scotland as a poor country, Dr. Lamont opposes sixty pages full of facts, from tomatoes to granite. "Unde- veloped potentialities" is the keynote: riches latent in seaweed, waterfalls, oil-shales, deer-forests, peat-bogs, unworked deposits of iron-ore. Notes on how the Irish, Swedes, Norwegians and Swiss' have developed their resources in peat, timber and electricity rein- force Dr. Lamont's opinion that the exploitation of Scotland's re- sources has often been thwarted by English business interests. One need not wholly agree with this to admit that the fact of Scotland's undeveloped wealth was well worth stressing, and that one of Scotland's major needs is scientific and industrial research.

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