Scotland's War Losses..

I was busy clearing out our store and gathering lots of stuff to take to our local recycling centre when I came upon this old publication (publication date 1947). I can't recall why or for how long I've had it.

It seems appropriate given today's commemoration of the First World War, accompanied by some ill-informed speeches, to use it as a Blip. It is harrowing to recall the scale of sacrifice during the First World War, but there is also something rather hypocritical as well as tasteless in the way in which politicians seek to glory in the sacrifice.

It is well noted that the scale of losses from Scotland was considerable. A number of estimates, not only from this publication, indicate that the number of Scots to die in conflict was not far off the same as the number of dead from the USA - considerably in excess of 100,000.

In Scotland, rural areas, and particularly in the Highland's and Islands, losses were very substantial indeed. To encourage volunteering, British politicians of the time made promises to Highland communities, including that no man who fights would ever again be denied the right to till its soil or to build a home. But when peace came, the UK government refused to implement the bargain with the men who fought and survived (many survivors were badly injured).

What was the purpose of the First World War? I think I agree with the summary of Craig Murray who spent 20 years in the UK diplomatic service, latterly as British Ambassador to Uzbekistan, when he wrote today that,

"The First World War was a terrible, terrible event. The millions of soldiers may have been activated by motives they believed to be noble, but the cause of war was the rival desires for aggrandisement of the very rich who ran and profited from the Empires.

The Second World War was a fight against the evil philosophy of fascism, but there was no such cause for the First World War, which was simply a clash between Empires, and whose vindictive conclusion laid the foundations for fascism."