Edinburgh, September 19.
One of our basic industries, an industry whose importance to ud is to be measured not in economic terms, but also by what it represents in sound manhood and—womanhood, is threatened with disaster—the Scottish herring industry. Ju normal times its largest customer is Russia, which in pre-war days absorbed about 75 per cent. of the total amount of the herring dealt with by Scottish curers, a considerable proportion of the balance being consumed by Germany. During the war the stoppage of the Baltic markets was made up for by an increase in home consumption and by the employment of mos f the young fishermen in naval servi The complete collapse of Russia prevented the recovery of the industry after the war, and there are no signs of immediate improvement. The German demand, also, has declined with the collapse of the mark, and the last straw was added by the French occupation of the Ruhr, which was formerly a steady purchaser of Scottish herring. Though the catch for the Seoitish herring season has been good, the majority of the boats have failed pay expenses. The most fortunate of the fishermen have had only a few pounds for this whole season's work: the majority have nothing at all: while in' many cases the men have actually been out of pocket, and the owners have had to advance them the money for their journey home, the Scots fishermen, unlike the English, working on shares, not for wages. Boats and houses have had to be mortgaged, many households have been in debt for three years, local merchants are lying out of large sums of money, and in some quarters there is actual starvation.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.