Says Scots Covenanter
By ANDREW BOYLE
A national Housing Project "carried out by Scotsmen for Scotsmen without Whitehall interference" is only one solid plank in the platform of Scotland's Covenanters calculated to Win over the mass of Scotland's 600,000 Catholics to the cause of home rule.
That at any rate is the view of Glasgow lawyer, Mr. J. J. Campbell, one of the four Catholics elected last week as members of the 15-man Scottish National Covenant Commission. Fellow-lawyer and Socialist, John Bayne, dock leader Michael Byrne. and ex-Ambassador Sir George Ogilivie Forbes are the other three.
Mr. Campbell told me in London this week : " It is not easy to say how many Catholics there are among the one and a quarter million Scotsmen who have already signed the Covenant.
" Nor do I want to suggest that they are all rallying behind us in our campaign for independence. I couldn't give you figures even if I wanted to.
" But I can say this with confidence : there is a great deal of good and honest thinking going on, and the Catholic people of Scotland aren't likely to he left behind when the time for decision comes.
" Some of us are already taking a prominent part in the Covenant Movement because we are convinced that home rule is a just demand which will benefit Catholics as much as any other section of the community.
" We are supposed to be equal partners with England under the Act of Union. In fact. we are nothing of the sort. So we are anxious now to recover responsibility for the conduct of our own affairs."