30 APRIL 1937, Page 26

CALEDONIAN POWER SCHEME

[To the Editor of THE SPECTATOR.]

SIR,—A great deal is being made of the fact that a majority of the Scottish Members who voted on the Caledonian Power Bill were in support of it.

The paramount fact is that the member for Inverness-shire, representing the inhabitants of the district, voted against the Bill.

That Glasgow members supported a project in Western Inverness-shire is of no more consequence than that South Wales Members opposed it.

It would be interesting to know what proportion of the employees of existing hydro-electric undertakings in the Highlands were previously resident locally, and what proportion came from elsewhere. It would surprise me to learn that ghillies, shepherds and crofters in Inverness-shire are anxious to exchange their present callings for work in a carbide factory.

We have idle industrial areas in South Wales and elsewhere, and men waiting there for work ; are we to create a new such area in a rural district, scenically unsurpassed ?—Yours