5 JUNE 1947, Page 2

Progress in Scotland

The White Paper on Industry and Employment in Scotland, pub- lished on Tuesday, which is intended to supplement the Economic Survey of 1947, shows that the problems confronting Scotland are essentially those which are common to Britain as a whole. Shortage of raw materials is probably the most important contributory factor to rising unemployment—which is still less than half of the 5939 figure—and to the widespread but concealed under-employment. The obvious peacetime problems of re-gearing industry after a war which brought work and prosperity to Scotland as a whole and to Clydeside in particular is also temporarily the cause of local pockets of unemployment which may be more than partially alleviated by the convesion of vast Government factories into industrial estates. But the most encouraging qection of the report is that which deals with the programme for solving the two perennial problems of Scot- land—the provision of a constant level of employment both in the

heavy industries and in the depopulated Highlands and islands. Towards the first goal preliminary steps are rightly being taken in raising the level of coal production—there are extensive reserves in Ayrshire, Fife and the Lothians still to be exploited—and by the reorganisation and redistribution of the iron and steel industry. As to the second the Highlands and islands should also look to the future with a certain measure of tempered confidence. The North of Scot- land hydro-electric schemes, the vast expansion in State forestry, the extensive encouragement of the crofting, fishing and tourist industries all point to an immediate reversal of the trend of depopula- tion in these areas.