The Stone
Comment and conjecture about the theft of the Stone of Scone from Westminster Abbey very quickly reached a point at which Scottish Nationalists were saying that this performance would serve to draw attention to Scotland's complaints. And it is true that, if the 'supporters of Scottish Nationalism can find no better way of drawing attention to themselves, hooliganism will serve. But in that case the interest aroused could hardly be sympathetic, and any members of the movement who attach importance to reason and decency will presumably want to dissociate themselves from an act of sordid theft. After all, the one new fact apart from all the mass of legend and history surrounding the stone, is the dirty little fact that certain persons got into Westminster Abbey in order to wrench a relic from the Coronation Chair and drag it away—and that in the peace of Christmas morning. The only clear morals are that people who rob churches should be punished for it, and that rather better care might have been taken of an object which the Dean of Westminster himself describes as " the most precious relic we have." Its symbolic value—which is the main value possessed by this singularly unprepossessing triumph of Scottish art—has been permanently harmed by this latest episode in its long history. Wherever it turns lip the dignity which surrounds it will have been reduced. It is only to be hoped, since everybody assumes that it was the work of Scottish Nationalists, that this theft will not lead to any serious deterioration of the discussion of proposals which are more worthy of study than the grotesque behaviour of some of their supporters might suggest. No piece of stone, however ancient, is worth that.
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