Scotsman Archive: 'Restiveness in Scotland, 30 November, 1949

Published on Sunday 29 November 2009 22:44

DR GS Duncan, Moderator of the General Assembly of the Church of Scotland, addressed the Caledonian dinner of the Scottish Group of the Forum Club on St Andrew's Eve. He spoke of prevailing anxieties in Scotland: "There are many conditions and trends in Scotland to-day which are causing us very real anxiety.

Even here in London you must have gathered that there is a certain restiveness in Scotland to-day. People in London would be taking an unfair view of things if they did not realise that Scotland is troubled. This restiveness is in some cases taking an extreme form. The demand for a Scottish Parliament and the other kind of demand, that we should have a literature of our own, and write not only our poems but our books in Lallans, are extremist demands. All the same, there is a deep dismay that things are being managed too much in London by those who do not know, and very often do not care. Anything North of the Tweed is so far away that it might as well be the North Pole."

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