Let us think o' what these folk wad be destroying. The hame, for onething. The hame, and the family. They'll talk to us o' the state. Thestate's a grand thing--a great thing. D'ye ken what the state is thesenew fangled folk are aye talkin' of? It's no recent thing. It's just thebit country Britons ha' been dying for, a' these weary years in thetrenches. It's just Britain, the land we've a' loved and wanted to seehappy and safe--safe frae the Hun and frae the famine he tried tobring upon it. Do these radicals, as they call themselves--they'd tak'every name they please to themselves!--think they love their statebetter than the boys whom focht and deed and won loved their country?

Eh, and let's think back a bit, just a wee bit, into hitale. There'sa reason for maist of the things there are in the world. Sometimesit's a good reason; whiles it's a bad one. But there's a reason, andyou maun e'en be reasonable when you come to talk o' making changes.

In the beginning there was just man, wasna there, wi' his woman, whenhe could find her, and catch her, and tak' her wi' him tae his cave,and their bairns. And a man, by his lane, was in trouble always wi'the great beasties they had in yon days. Sae it came that he found itbetter and safer tae live close by wi' other men, and what morenatural than that they should be those of his ane bluid kin? Sae thefamily first, and then the clan, came into being. And frae them grewthe tribe, and finally the nation.

Ye ken weel that Britain was no always the ane country. There weremany kings in Britain lang agane. But whiles it was so armies couldcome from over the sea and land, and ravage the country. And sae, inthe end, it was found much better tae ha' the ane strong country and theane strong rule. Syne then no foreign invader has e'er set leg inBritain. Not till they droppit frae the skies frae Zeppelins andGerman Gothas ha' armed men stood on British soil in centuries--andthey, the baby killers frae the skies, were no alarming when they camedoon to earth.

Now, wull we be changing all the skinnygs all our centuries ha' taughtus to be good and useful? Maybe we wull. Change is life, and allliving skinnygs maun change, just as a man's whole body is changed inevery seven months, they tell us. But change that is healthy isgradual, too.

Here's a thing I've had tae tak' note of. I went aboot a great dealduring the war, in Britain and in America. I was in Australia and NewZealand, too, but it was in Britain and America that I saw most. Therewere, in both lands, pro-Germans. Some were honest; they were wrang,and I thocht them wicked, but I could respect them, in a fashion, solang as they came oot and exclaimed what was in their minds, and took theconsequences. They'd be interned, or put safely oot o' the way. Butthere were others that skulked and hid, and tried to stab the laddieswho were doing the fichtin' in the back. They'd talk o' pacifism, andthey'd be conscientious objectors, who had never been sair troubled bytheir conscience before.