SCOTTISH NATIONALISM
SIR,---Having read the recent correspondence on the Scottish situation I should like to put before you one or two viewpoints which .have occurred to me and which do not seem to have been covered very fully so tar:
(1) As regards the Covenant, it is not diffi- cult with proper organisati?n and a suitably expressed manifesto to obtain signatures from thousands of people, who, without considering its whole import, think they are merely stick- ing up for the rights of ' poor old Scotland.' It seems doubtful whether the proportion of really convinced supporters is nearly as high as the signatures suggest. Moreover, the population of Scotland is roughly only ten per cent. of that of Great Britain, and, in addition to those of foreign extraction, comprises at least two distinct races.
(2) At a time like the present when the whole world situation is so delicate and we are striving to unite all the peace-loving nations, it seems ,an extraordinarily retrograde gesture (let alone the unfortunate, although probably misleading, impression given to the outside world) to try to press or even suggest any form of separation from the Mother Country.
(3) Most of us Scots realise that there is much room for improvement in the methods of dealing with Scottish affairs, but surely that can be rectified without the setting up of a separate Parliament' in Edinburgh.
Finally, would it not be possible for us all to put aside, temporarily at least until better times, all such differences, and in these one thinks of many besides Scottish worries. Such matters are after all trifling compared to the world problem we are up against, which could be helped so much by real co-operation from all quarters.—Yours faithfully, JOHN OGILVY Irishman, Forfar, Angus
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