I agree up to a point with Bony Southall's analysis of the Pollok byelection results, but I am quite sure that the large vote for George Leslie, the S.N.P, candidate, was not merely a protest vote against the vote for Scottish self-government, and one which should have taused no surprise. A recent survey showed that 80% of the Scottish people want Home itule of some sort. I also strenuously deny that there is anything "basically reactionary" about S.N.P. plicy. It was the Labour candidate’ who advocated support for the Americans in Vietnam and Scottish entry into the Common Market. I heard Leslie sey he wanted to see all foreign troops, including American, out of Vietnam and the Vietnamese allowed to solve their own problems with the help of U.N.O. He also stated that he would like to see Scotland part of a European co-operative community which included the East European countries. In passing I might mention that last week the "Labour" Government turned down a bill to abolish hereditary titles but that in 1965 the S.N.P. at its annual conference unanimously passed a resolution pledging itself to abolish all hereditary titles. Home Rule for Scotland was at one time an integral part of Labour policy, but after 1945 it was quietly shoved under the carpet along with Clause IV. In 1918 the annual conference of the British Labour Party formally endorsed the principle of a separate Scottish Parliament, and this was formally re-endorsed in 1928. Although it was not included in the 1945 election programme "Let us Face the Future", practically all Labour candidates in Scotland circulated during the election a list of objects for which they stood. Second in importance to the defeat of Japan was "A Scottish Parliament for Scottish Affairs"! During the election Clement Attlee wrote to the Maxwelltwon Labour Party giving full assurances that the Labour Party in office would implement its old pledges on Scottish self-government. The failure of the Labour Party to implement these promises is now coming home to roost. I myself agree with Tom Johnston, the war-time Scottish Secretary, when he said in Glasgow in 1946 "I am certain that any effort to deprive Scotsmen inside Scotland of control of their own affairs will in the end fail". Scotland's most famous pioneer of Marxian Socialism, John Maclean, lived and died in Pollok, but he died through separation from Tory England. He wished Scotland to follow Ireland's heroic example, and for that purpose organised in 1923 the Scottish Workers Republican Party. Had he not died that very year it is possible that Scotland might have had her republic by this time, but it won'¥ be long now, ‘according to Seotland's most popular folksong "The Scottish Breakaway" which ends like this - i
* has been a member of the Labour Party since 1936, and for the last three years a member of Stirling County Council, :
saad
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The Scottish Breakaway - Cont'd
"So here's tae the lion
The bonny rampant lion
A lang stretch tae it's claw.
Gie a Hampden roar and it's cot the door
And ta-ta tae Charlie's Maw."
"Nae Liz the twae
Nae Lilibet the wan
Nae Liz will ever dae
for we'll make oor land republican
In the Scottish Breakaway."
In conclusion my warning to the Labour Party, and particularly to the
left wing, is this. Remember the fate of the Irish Labour Party.
Because it failed to support the Irish fight for freedom and allowed
Sinn Fein to lead it, it lost its influence with the Irish people,
and has not yet regained it. If the Labour Party continues to ignore
the fundamental Socialist principle of the self-determination of small
nations and fails to support Scotland's desire for freedom, then it runs
the risk of losing all infmence in Scotland for a very long time.