Religion: Rage on the Range

John Knox, Scotland’s 16th century thunderer against popery, would have preached himself hoarse at the thought. On South Uist, North Uist and Benbecula (pop. some 5,000), an island group in Scotland’s Outer Hebrides. Protestants and Catholics have banded together with a single goal: to drive out the Sassenach.

Last month Britain’s Royal Air Force told some 200 South Uist crofters that they would be evicted to make room for a rocket-testing range. With their thatched cottages and small, thin-soiled farms in danger, the South Uist crofters—80% Catholics, the rest Church of Scotland Protestants—marshaled behind one leader: Father John Morrison, a local crofter’s son.

Normally a tranquil man who loves shooting and fishing (he advises cardinal flies dosed with Vat 69), Father Morrison fired off an appeal to the newspapers: “S.O.S., S.O.S. to all Scotsmen . . . Let us prove that Scotsmen can fight for their precious heritage.” To 1,000 crofters of both faiths at a mass meeting. Father Morrison stated the case: importing “9,000 aliens” (4,000 soldiers and their families) would wreak havoc with the livestock, tweed, seaweed and egg-packing industries. Said he: “The range will have to be built over our dead bodies.” When the Air Ministry showed no disposition to re-roost its rockets, 16 crofters flew to England to harass the aliens on TV. Last week Father Morrison began talking ominously of his “trump card,” a scheme to have the entire flock of crofters emigrate to Canada. “It would cause a revolution in Scotland,” he prophesied. Of his own role in the fight, Morrison says: “The tradition here is that the clergy are the leaders.” He adds wryly: “I communicate with the bishop on other matters, but not on this one. Probably one of these days he’ll telephone to excommunicate me.”