The following interesting letter has been handed to the Editor by Mr.
J. Stewart Bannatyne, solicitor, Glasgow:
“CASTLEBAY, BARRA.
“_September 21st, 1912._
“Dear Sir,
“In reply to your letter of the 6th inst., and after consulting the
older inhabitants, I beg to inform you that it was John Bannatyne
who rescued Mrs. J. M’Kinnon, her sister and another woman, from
compulsory emigration, but it was John Crawford who rescued John
M’Lean. I know the women and M’Lean as well as I know my two fingers,
and heard the whole story from their own lips different times.
“Both my father and mother were eye-witnesses of people being chased
like wild cattle over the hills, not in Barra, but in North and South
Uists. People can hardly believe now what took place then, and what
my mother, who died in my arms at the fall of last year, told me it
would be enough to make the devil himself desperate, if I am not
using too strong an expression.
“There is a man still living at Mallaig, Inverness-shire, named Ewen
M’Dugald, who sailed with John Bannatyne.
“People nowadays are trying to deny that such brutalities were
carried out by landlords, but they need not attempt such nonsense. I
have no doubt but the descendants of the perpetrators of those acts
are ashamed of the deeds--and no wonder.
“Yours faithfully,
“DON. M’AULAY.
“JOHN STEWART BANNATYNE, Esq.,
“Solicitor, Glasgow.”