IRISHMEN IN SCOTLAND

Dominion, Volume 21, Issue 114, 11 February 1928, Page 24

IRISHMEN IN SCOTLAND

EXTRAORDINARY INCREASE. The General Assembly of the Church of Scotland is troubled, by recent increases in Irish immigration (writes tlie correspondent of the “Argus”). A repbrt to the Scottish Churches Council, recently adopted by the General Assembly of the Church of Scotland, states" that the Roman Catholic population of Scotland during the last nundred vears has increased by . 700 per cent., as against an increase of 110 per cent, in the rest of the population. “A century ago the Catholics were one in 30 of the population of Scotland; in 1921 they were one in eight,” it says. “Already the Roman Catholic element has acquired a numerical ascendancy in certain industrial areas.” Supplementing this report, Mr. George Ihomson, iiutliot 1 of “Caledonia” in the “To-day and To-morrow Library,” says that everv fifth babv born in Scotland is an Irish Roman Catholic. Another Scotsman who favours an Irish Exclusion Act is the Rev. Duncan Cameron. Dean Inge, as an Englishman, makes a similar demand on Scotland’s behalf.If the Protestant statistics are to be trusted, the Irish Roman Catholics in Scotland now number 700,000. The Protestant demand, based upon them, is that no further passports should be issued to Irishmen to settle in Scotland unless thev can prove that a job awaits them and the employer shows that the Scottish Labour Exchanges cannot furnish Scottish labour. The Irish Roman Catholics refuse to accept all the Protestant figures, and maintain that much of their increase is due to the Roman Catholic ban upon birth control. Both sides, however, accept the fact of a considerable Irish increase since the granting of Home Rule to the Free State and the large reduction in the number of Irish migrants to the United States.