Letters: It is a nonsense to put David Livingstone in the line of fire over slavery links – HeraldScotland

I FIND it difficult to rationalise David Livingstone being included in the report purporting he was an integral figure in Glasgows complicity in Atlantic slavery (City statues singled out for links to slave trade, The Herald, March 29). To imply that as a child labourer from the age of 10 in H Monteiths Blantyre Mill earning money first to support his parental household including seven siblings, and later his medical studies, he was somehow condoning the mill owners partnership with two Glasgow West India merchants is surely stretching into the realms of fantasy.

Furthermore, from study of his diary and other writings it is abundantly clear that he was totally opposed to slavery. For example, in a letter to the editor of the New York Herald he wrote: And if my disclosures regarding the terrible Ujijian slavery should lead to the suppression of the east coast slave trade, I shall regard that as a greater matter by far than the discovery of all the Nile sources together. It is also recorded on the legend board on the site of the former slave market site in Zanzibar, The trade in men, women and children was stopped by decree from the Sultan of Zanzibar following the appeal made by Dr David Livingstone in 1857 to the men of the English Universities of Oxford and Cambridge to liberate Africa from slavery.

Finally, the brass plaque on his grave in Westminster Abbey includes reference to his effort to abolish the desolating slave trade of Central Africa. David Livingstones Glasgow statue can rightly be regarded as commemorating his anti-slavery stance.

Jon Cossar, Edinburgh.

* BILL Brown (Letters, March 30) bemoans the invasion of "woke" issues in our daily lives and cites the example of two brave British soldiers and their heroic military achievements, both of whom had historical links with slavery.

He then adds that the British Army's links with the slave trade were rightly ignored and that their heroic deeds could not have been carried through if they had disobeyed orders and dissociated themselves from those "attitudes".

Mr Brown ends with the words "is it fair to punish someone for obeying orders and being like everyone else of that time?"

Very similar words were applied at the time of the Nuremberg trials. The Nazis obeyed orders too.

Kevin Orr, Bishopbriggs.

MASKS ARE FOR GOOD OF SOCIETY

MARK Innes (Letters, March 28) does some very selective quoting. If he thinks "there is no evidence that cloth and surgical masks offer any protection against viruses" then he should ask himself why we see most people wearing them in those cities in Far East countries which have learned to cope with MERS and SARS, and now Covid. These are countries which cumulatively, relative to population size, have done far better than us.

I think he shares a common confusion that the usual face masks work by protecting the wearer directly. I do agree that, if you are indoors in a ward full of Covid sufferers, you will need much stronger and more expensive masks, like a surgeon in an operating theatre. But outside of this, in shops and public transport, the usual masks work well but in a different way. They work by protecting others from the wearer, who may not know he or she is infectious. The difference is that Covid virus that is breathed out wants to hitch a ride on a tiny water droplet or cloud of vapour. The mask interferes with that, and stops it going very far (the details depend on an understanding of fluid mechanics).

Thus we are talking about a public health measure, where we do something to protect others for the good of society, and not thinking only about protecting ourselves. Alas, wearing face masks only works well if almost everyone complies. Thus if most of us stop wearing them then their failure becomes a self-fulfilling prophecy.

Peter Gray, Aberdeen.

ANDREW AND A MOTHER'S LOVE

I AM sure that most, if not all, were impressed with the Service of Thanksgiving for the Duke of Edinburgh at Westminster Abbey, particularly with the address by the Right Reverend David Connor, the Dean of Windsor, which was so fitting in content and delivery ("Andrew plays prominent role in memorial service to Prince Philip", The Herald, March 30). What did take most people by some surprise was the high profile of the disgraced Duke of York in escorting the Queen to her place in the Abbey.

The background to his involvement in this way is not known. Did Andrew promote his own significant involvement in this way? Did his mother request his assistance in particular? Whatever the reason, the Queen was openly declaring that, in spite of everything, she still finds time for her son and one is reminded of the words of Washington Irving: "A mothers love endures through all."

Ian W Thomson, Lenzie.

* RE Denis Bruce's comments on the "streamlined royal family of the future" (Letters, March 29), we are certainly witnessing the end of an era. Even the Commonwealth, so close to the Queens heart, may be on borrowed time. Our colonial past was of its time; we cannot change history.

A streamlined institution under William as king may well fit the bill and, with it, a more modest lifestyle. He and Kate must move with the times, and will, I am sure.

Brian D Henderson, Glasgow.

LODGING, A COMPLAINT

DAVID Miller comments on the 2 a month he was paid as an apprentice accountant in the 1950s (Letters, March 30). In 1955 I applied for a student apprenticeship with a luxury car maker of that time. The wage was 3/15s a month but it was a condition of employment that all students had to stay in the firms hostel for which the charge was 4 a month. On successful completion of the first year, the wage increased to 4/5s a month. I declined the offer.

David Waters, Blackwood.

ALARMING OCCURRENCES

CAN somebody explain to me why my old-style smoke alarms which I retained alongside my new, all-singing, all-dancing and expensive system go off when I burn the toast but the new system does not? It does however spring into action with a dreadful din all over the house when somebody is vaping, which is an apparently harmless pastime.

The system is correctly installed. This is a bit worrying, to say the least.

Rick Lawrie, Aberdour.

See the article here:

Letters: It is a nonsense to put David Livingstone in the line of fire over slavery links - HeraldScotland