GLEN AFFRIC IN DANGER SIR, —Those who were successful on three
separate occasions in pre- serving from irretrievable damage the scenic grandeur of the glens and lochs to the north-west of the southern part of the Caledonian Canal must view with alarm the latest proposal affecting—of all places —Glen Affric and the adjoining district. The first sign of danger was in 1937, when a company—The Highland Estates, Ltd., was formed, and purchased certain lands and rivers in Glen Affric and adjoining glens. The shares of this company are practically all held by The Commercial Bank of Scotland (Edinburgh) Nominees, Ltd. Three years later, viz., in November last, plans were lodged with the Sheriff Clerks of Inverness-shire and Ross-shire by the Grampian Electricity Supply Company in connexion with a new scheme for the harnessing of lochs and rivers and the establishment of hydro-electric works in Glen Affric, Glen Cannich and Strath Glass, and application has been made by the Grampian Company to the Secretary of State for Scotland for a provisional order for the carrying-out of this scheme. Wide powers are being sought to enable this company to do practically what it likes with the rivers Affric, Cannich, Glass and Beauly, and the straths and glens through which they run. This latest move is being made when our country is engaged in a life-and-death struggle, the danger being that, the public having no time for matters other than this struggle, the proposal may go through. After we have won the war we may discover that not our cities alone have heed devastated, but our countryside as well. Our cities can be rebuilt, but not our countryside.—Yours faithfully, A. K. BELL. Perth.
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