Letter: Rallying cry

Donald J MacLeod's letter (15 July ) spelling out the massively disproportionate military contribution made by Scotland to the British forces since the Union led me to consider, in a rather light-hearted way, another aspect of the same issue.

It has been authoritatively stated that no less than one-third of the sailors in the British fleet at the Battle of Trafalgar were Scots. The thought occurs that if these Scots sailors had decided that Nelson's famous signal that "England expects…" did not apply to them, would we now be speaking French or Spanish?

AM THOMSON

Milton Crescent

Edinburgh