This is true—but not exactly in the sense the Committee intends. It will not do to identify Scottish nationality and traditions wholly with Protestantism. There has always been a considerable native Catholic population, and most of the finest elements in our traditions, in our literature, in our national history, come down from the days when Scotland was wholly Catholic. Neither, in speaking of a “silent and unostentatious peril” will it do to overlook the fact that Scotland has been steadily subject to Anglicization ever since the Union. This, since it does not raise the “religious bogey” in the way the Irish immigration does, is apt to be overlooked, but it should have at least as much attention as the other from the “Scottish” Churches, if at last they are seriously concerned with Scottish nationalism, and not merely with a sectarian issue. Until they face the whole issue of Scottish Nationalism and define what they mean by it and by a national culture, they will be suspected of merely using the term to cover an interest in special issues by no means synonymous with it, however importantly they may be related to it. But the part is not greater than the whole, and an all-round statesman-like attitude is what is necessary, and should be forthcoming from a Church that is truly Scottish and has the deepest interests of Scotland at heart. Nor will these ministerial protagonists gain anything by suggesting that “Scottish employers of labour ought to do their utmost to retain their fellow-countrymen at home.” The suggestion takes no cognizance of economic realities. Nor is the suggested restriction of immigration any more feasible under the existing system. It is impossible to discriminate against the Irish in that way as long as we are co-members of the British Empire. If anything is to be done it must be along the lines of re-acquiring Scottish control of Scottish affairs, and more particularly such a measure of financial autonomy as would enable projects like the mid-Scotland ship canal, land settlement on a far greater scale, the creation of co-operative agencies in our agriculture, afforestation and so forth, to be developed in a way the House of Commons has not allowed—in short, to undo the present neglect of, and contempt for, Scottish affairs, and their treatment, where they have had any, within the limits of alien and inappropriate conceptions, which are largely responsible for the pass to which we have been brought, and which cannot be undone until we have once again a Parliament of our own and are free to move on the axis of our own mentality. VII