Sectarian Anxieties, 1923

THE GENERAL ASSEMBLY OF THE CHURCH OF SCOTLAND

In a shameful episode in the career of the Church of Scotland, one of its committees, led by the Rev. Dr John White – who later became Moderator – argued for restrictions on Irish immigration in order to quell the rising tide, as they saw it, of Roman Catholicism. This outburst of intolerance sparked years of sectarian trouble in previously peaceful parts of the country. The report below is from the debate on the subject held during the General Assembly of the Church of Scotland.

The Rev. William Main, Edinburgh, presented the report of the Committee to consider overtures from the Presbytery of Glasgow and from the Synod of Glasgow and Ayr on Irish Immigration and the Education (Scotland) Act 1918. The report, he should say, was the work of the Rev. Duncan Cameron, Kilsyth. As a result of their inquiries they had found that the fears and anxieties expressed at last General Assembly were well grounded. It was not possible to prove that their facts and statements were either inaccurate or exaggerated in any way. The Irish population in Scotland during the past forty years had doubled itself, and in the last twenty years the increase of the Irish population was six and a half times as great as that of the Scottish population. This was not because of the greater fertility of the Irish race. It was not a matter of the birth-rate at all; but for the most part, if not entirely, it was due to the emigration from Ireland, and as the Irish settled in an area the Scots departed from it. The two races could not fuse. The political influence of the immigration was seen already in the West. It was very largely due to that fact that they had in the House of Commons at the present time men who were supposed to represent constituencies in Glasgow and the west, but who did not represent them really. (Applause.) They had been elected members of Parliament by the fact that they had this enormous Irish Roman Catholic population in these areas. Hence the type of men sent from these areas to Parliament, bringing disgrace and scandal into the House of Commons. (Applause.) He was not afraid of proselytism by the Roman Catholic priests, but increased Roman Catholic populations brought with them a certain power, and in educational, municipal, and Parliamentary elections they held the balance. It was very easy to state the problem, but much more difficult to solve it. He thought, however, they had adduced a sufficient number of facts and figures to warrant the General Assembly calling upon the Government to institute an inquiry into the condition of matters, which, to say the least of it, was a menace to their Scottish nationality. (Applause.) Touching on the second part of the report Mr Main said what had happened under the Education Act of 1918 in the Roman Catholic schools which had been transferred to the Education Authorities throughout the land was that they were just the same as they were when they were under the full direct control of the authorities of the Roman Catholic Church. In name they were national schools. In reality they remained Catholic. Religious instruction and religious observation could go on all day, while according to the Act of 1872 religious instruction must be given at the beginning or at the end of a school period. They should call on the Government to amend the Act so that the right to impart religious instruction should be accorded to all public schools as was accorded in transferred schools. He moved approval of the deliverance.

The Rev. Duncan Cameron, Kilsyth, seconded. Under present conditions, he said, there was a great danger that the Scottish nationality would be imperilled and Scottish civilization subverted. He quoted official figures which showed that in 1920 the number of Scottish people leaving the Clyde for other parts was 24,179, while the number of Irishmen leaving was 341; in 1921 Scots were 20,810 and Irish 296; and in 1922, the respective numbers were 22,427 and 219. On the other hand, if they went to the clerk of the Parish Council in Glasgow they would hear that of the total numbers applying for the ‘dole’ last year no fewer than between 60 and 70 per cent were Irish, though the proportion of Irish in Glasgow to the total population was between 25 and 30 per cent. Charity organizations would also tell them that no less than 70 per cent of the applicants for relief were of Irish origin.

It was time that the people of Scotland realized the situation. The complexion and the spirit of our Scottish civilization were being altered by a large alien race in our midst, people of different ideals and faith and blood. Professor Phillimore had written that within a generation the Roman Catholic Church in Scotland would be more predominant than in the Eastern States of America – which implied that the power of that Church in the Eastern States was so great that it was impossible for any politician to do anything that might be remotely antagonistic to its people. The time might come when political parties would not touch this question, when men in positions of public authority and power would be afraid to speak, to see this land passing into strange hands. (Applause.) …

The Rev. Dr White, Glasgow, remarked that the problem was very difficult, but it was also very urgent. That was specially felt in the West. The question was not one between Roman Catholicism and Protestantism; it was a question of how to safeguard the Scottish nationality. Our civilization differed from that of those immigrants; the spirit of our institutions was widely different. The problem was how to regulate the incoming of those new forces from Ireland, Italy, and Jewry so as to be a strength and not a menace – how to fuse those heterogenous elements into one essential whole so that they should be Scottish and not foreign. The need was for regulation of emigration, as every other nation did. (Applause.) The main purpose of the report was to bring before the community and the attention of statesmen an urgent problem which called for solutions …

The Rev. G. W. Mackay, Killin, suggested that it was exceedingly dangerous to use the word ‘alien’ in this connection. Were the great majority of the English an alien race? Was the great mass of Protestants in Ulster an alien race? (‘No.’) He agreed that immigration should be regulated, and that it was in a wise, statesmanlike regulation that to a large extent a solution of this problem lay. He deprecated Mr Main’s references to the Labour members in Glasgow. (Hear, hear.)