The New Scotland. (London Scots Self-Government Committee. is. 6d.) EASILY
the best of these essays by seventeen writers are those that begin by describing and analysing some definite aspect of the situation in Scotland today. Dennis Macintosh on herring fishing, Naomi Mitchison on rural problems, Robert Hurd on planning and building, A. R. Wannop on agriculture, Sinclair Shaw on the legal 'System, all these speak with a concreteness and incisiveness lacking in the more ambitious contributors who run up models of the ideal Scotland of the future. Two themes constantly recur. First, the need to keep always in mind the welfare of the country as a whole --this is the criterion by which, for instance, hydro-electric develop- ment should be judged, and it implies in turn that we have some idea of the kind of country we should like Scotland to be. Second, the realisation that all plans depend ultimately on the energy and goodwill of the individual, and the consequent need to arouse a greater sense of personal initiative and responsibility in Scots today.
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