[Scotland's Oil [continued]][2nd February 1976]

[Redbook2:78F-I][19760202.0000d][Scotland's Oil [continued]][2nd February 1976]

19760202c.

[continued]

Military and economic security are two sides of the same coin— survival. Suppose now that Scotland had remained at peace; but that all the oil had been discovered, not off Scotland, but off the English and Welsh coasts. Suppose also (as a fantasy, I grant) that it occurred to the inhabitants of oil-rich England and Wales that without the inhabitants of unproductive Scotland there would be more oil to go round, and that in any case Scotland was a barren and uncivilized land, not worth having. Suppose finally that this (erroneous) consideration led nine-tenths of the inhabitants of England and Wales, in a sudden, upsurge of anti-Scottish nationalism, to vote with full democratic procedure that Scotland should be granted full independence, whether her inhabitants wished or not -- thus condemning those inhabitants to poverty. Would World Opinion -- that admittedly fluid property -- be prepared to countenance such a confiscation, by a majority, of the material rights or expectations of a minority within that majority (or overall) power's existing borders: such blatant oppression? Surely not.

[continues]

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