SCOTTISH ROYAL COMMISSION
Sia,—In the article on the Royal Commission on Scottish affairs (Spectator, August 6) Mr. Sturrock Tightly indicates that the Commission was set up owing to Scottish Nationalist pressure. He rightly states that neither a plebiscite nor a Commission provides a substi- tute for the United Kingdom Parliament. Nor does a United Kingdom Parliament meet the \ needs of a self-respecting Scottish nation. Clearly the UK Parliament does not give a means of enabling Scotland to make the most of its own material resources.
As one who believes in self-government not only for Scotland but for all countries, may I explain why 2 In the House of Commons there arc 71 Scots .MPs and 512 English ones so that even if the whole 71 Scots MPs were returned as Scottish Nationalists, unless the English Members were willing to let Scotland have a National Parliament of her own, so long as the UK Parliament has control Scotland must suffer. We shall recall that no less than eleven times Scottish Home Rule Bills have been introduced into the House of Commons since 1908 by Scots MPs and none of those Bills had less than 80 per cent. of the Scots .MPs voting in support. Even then the United Kingdom Parliament failed to pass a Scottish Home Rule measure. Further: in 1913 Mr. Asquith's government made a definite promise to the Scottish people at a demonstration in Edinburgh that his govern- ment had decided to introduce and pass ,a measure of self-government for Scotland as soon as the Irish measure (which was then being debated) had been passed. But the 1914 war came before the Irish Bill had been finally completed.
Before the late Labour government, of which Mr. Attlee was head, came into office in 1945 the British Labour Party had pre- viously committed itself to a Self-Government, for Scotland measure but after Labour gained office it failed to implement that promise. Would Mr. Sturrock indicate what steps Scottish Nationalists should now take in order to secure a legislature in Scotland for R. E. MUIRHEAD Meikle Cloak, Lochwinnoch, Scotland
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