From the archive: Hector McNeil in Edinburgh - 6 March, 1950

“I can only repeat that this is the greatest honour that any Scotsman has had bestowed on him, and I continue to be very sensible of that,” said Mr Hector McNeil, MP, Secretary of State for Scotland, shortly after his arrival in Edinburgh by the night train from the South.

“I think myself fortunate in the team we have got in this Office,” added Mr McNeil. “It is a young team, and the five of us – and I want to insist that there are five of us – are all sensitively aware of the urgency of many of Scotland’s difficulties, and we will hope to bring a promptness to their consideration.” There were subjects in Scotland which should be capable of “treatment by concurrence”, as a number of Scottish Secretaries had discovered, including his friend and predecessor, Mr Arthur Woodburn, and most notably Mr Thomas Johnston, he said. He would seek to engage that concurrence from all sections, of the House wherever possible.