LONDONISATION AND SCOTLAND SIR,—I believe that in your paragraph entitled
" Londonisation and Scotland " you have made a sincere effort to understand the com- plaints of the Covenant Association. Never- theless, your concluding sentence, in which you write " its authors are short-sighted in their failure to see to what extent they stand upon common ground with their fellow citizens in the English provinces," is itself short-sighted and is an example of the very thing to which many Scots take exception.
At the moment, Scotland is treated in many ways as a province of England. As Govern- mental control increases, the operation of the ," incorporating union " leads to a provincia- lisation and Anglicisation of Scotland. The people of Scotland are beginning to realise that Scotland is a nation and we are trying to resist the incorporating policies of both the Labour and Conservative parties. To give merely one example: England is over- populated and must look for export markets for her manufactures; Scotland is under- populated, having regard to her agricultural resources, yet she is forced to take part in the same policies as England. The irony of this is seen when it is realised that the emigration rate from Scotland was in the ratio of 18 to 1 compared with that from England, due to these very policies.
This letter is not meant to be an anti- English tirade. As Oliver Brown says, " The only men who cannot shake hands are those who are handcuffed together." If the Dominions and Canada can be self-governing and yet be members of the Commonwealth, I see no reason why the same reasoning should not apply to Scotland. The danger is that no action will be taken until the position has deteriorated so far that the thoughts of more people turn in the direction of violence.— Yours faithfully, D. R. ROLLO. 44 Woodhead Avenue, Kirkintilloch, Glasgow
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