The first Birthday Honours List of Labour Government was looked forward to with some curiosity, but, with the exception of the absence of any Peerages it shows no difference from its predecessors. Polities, it should be said, are barred. One of the two Baronetcies goes to Mr. Alexander Grant, the managing, director of the Edinburgh firm of Messrs. M'Vitie & Price (La.), bis-cult manufacturers. Mr, Grant, it will be remembered, was the donor last year of £100,000 which enabled the Library as an_institution available to the people of Scotland. It will be noted with interest that Mr. Grant has always taken a keen und practical interest: in the development of Forres, Lossiemouth, and other parts of native district, and has frequently gifted large sums on behalf of the! Lossiemouth golf course. per-Sonal friend of Mr. Ramsay Mac-Donald, he acted as host to. the recent 0 Edinburgh.
Prime Minister during the latter's
Prominent among the new Ki is our best known Scottish painter and etcher, Mr. D. Y. Cameron, A. Another well-known Scot i honoured, Mr. W. L. Sleigh, of a leading motor and cycle firm, Lord: Provost of Edinburgh. A ' third Knight is Mr. Robert Donald, who began a successful journalistic career in Edinburgh, was editor of the! "Daily Chronicle" and managing! director of United Newspapers (I-d.). He was President of the Institute! of journalists; Chairman of the Empire: Press Union, and Chairman of the. Publicity Committee, in connexion with the British Empire Exhibition at Wembley. During the war. he reported several times on Propaganda, and was a Director at the Ministry of Information.
Mrs. Kennedy Fraser, who received: the decoration of C.B.E. "in recognition of her.contribution to folie music," is a well-known and Popular figure in Scottish musical -cirdles. The Hebridean melodies, which "che has rediscovered and Published have become famous all over the world, because of their haunting beauty, and music lovers axe under a deep debt of gratitude to Mrs. -Kennddy Fraser in this connexion. She is a daughter of the late David Kennedy, the Sects singer.
The Church, in Scotland. unqualified soecess. By the appoint A great experiment has been
ment of a commoner to represent the King at the General Assembly of the Church of Scotland, quite apart from the fact that he was a member of the Labour party, there has been established a precedent! which will make its influence felt as long as the office endures. This, it may be said, is the unanimous opinion of the Scottish press. After all, there is no State Church in the world where such an appointment could be more fitting. The Church of Scotland is a democratic church, the "church of the poor," administered with plainness and frugality, and its ministers have all liberty of conscience in spite of State connexion. It sprang from the people, and is peculiarly the church of the people, In Mr. Brown the High Commissioner was more really representative of the Church than per~ haps any previous holder of the ofice. This year's Assembly has for this and other reasons been more {in touch with the common life of the nation than ever before, at least in modern times; and the important subjects discussed especially that of Church union, gather fresh vitality, which may help to carry them through to-early fruition.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.