Irish Exodus to Scotland Causes Protest

Sun (Auckland), Volume II, Issue 412, 21 July 1928, Page 9

Irish Exodus to Scotland Causes Protest

Scottish Churchmen Lodge Complaint QUOTA SYSTEM WANTED (United P.A.—By Telegraph — Copyright) (Australian and N.Z. Press Association.) (United S ervice) LONDON, Friday. A deputation representing the Church of Scotland, the United Free Church of Scotland, and the Free Church of Scotland, waited upon the Home Secretary, Sir William JoynsonHicks, in London, and requested the imposition of a quota system on the migration of Irish people to Scotland. The delegates quoted statistics to show that the Irish population of Scotland from ISSI to 1901 had increased by 325 per cent., compared with an increase of native Scots of 185 per cent. The increases in the succeeding 20 years were 39 per cent, of Irish and 6 per cent, of native Scots. Irish people, it was stated, now numbered 25 per cent, of the population of Glasgow, and they received 70 per cent, of th© funds distributed for relief. It was asserted that the immigration of Irish folk had increased unemployment among Scots, and also that many of these people were undesirables who would not be admitted to the United States.

The Home Secretary said he was sympathetic in the matter, but the quota system would be entirely novel as applied to the British Isles. Negotiations had been proceeding with the Irish Free State authorities for the repatriation of paupered Irish from Scotland, and in his opinion a more satisfactory solution of the question would be found on those lines.