My hon. Friend who has just spoken has stood up for Scotland. Any man who stands up for Scotland is a friend of Scotland. This is not so much a party question as a question for all Scotsmen who love their country. Scotsmen are sent to this House to represent Scottish people and to uphold Scottish institutions, where those institutions have proved to be good and have never been proved to be inefficient and I cannot understand their mentality, whether elected as Unionist, Liberal or Labour representatives, in coming here and applauding the idea of taking away practically the only link with our people that has been left to us. The right hon. Member for Ross and Cromarty has said many things. I think he must give me credit for knowing something about Scotland. I remember an incident in the Scriptures when a person was sent for by a heathen King to come and curse Israel. The light hon. Gentleman rose to curse the Bill, but I am not sure that before he had finished he was not blessing the Bill. I think the right hon. Gentleman gave his case away.

Great play has been made on the word efficiency. What is efficiency? I am sure no one would say that we should give up efficiency for the sake of a few paltry pounds. We have no idea of the vast amount of money that is spent frivolously in many directions, and if we allowed Scotland to spend more freely in the way she would like, I do not think we should be doing anything out of the way at all. It is argued that there will be more efficiency when Boards in Scotland become Departments under the State Will small holdings go on more merrily? Will there be more rural transport? Will anything more be done to assist Scottish agriculture under a Department than was done under the Board system? The Board of Agriculture has been doing its very best under adverse circumstances. I am afraid the Board of Agriculture got less money to spend than it should have had, and I wish the Secretary of State would stand up more boldly and claim more for Scotland. I might have to modify that—I do not know what he has claimed. He may have claimed a great deal; we do know that he has not got anything like what he ought to have got to spend on that one Department alone.

What have these Boards done that they should be eliminated, and why are Departments to be set up instead? England has her own Departments with Ministers responsible to the House of Commons and to the country. There is the Minister for Agriculture, the Minister of Health, the Prison Commissioners; you have all these things in England and yet we in Scotland are to be deprived of the last remnant of our nationality and are to be fobbed off with Departments. On one rather unhappy occasion for some people, although I am still unrepentant, I said that it would take days to discuss any one of the questions raised by the Board of Health, the Board of Agriculture and the Prison Commission. I am not going to enlarge on that topic this evening, but I want to say that I am not going to give a silent vote to-night and I hope the hon. and learned Member for Perth (Mr. Skelton) will have the courage of his convictions to go into the Lobby with us in order to show that there is at least one Scottish Unionist who will stand by and claim the rights of Scotland. I think the hon. and learned Member for Argyllshire (Mr. Macquisten) will also be all right when the test comes.

Scotland is paying very dearly indeed for the last election, and I am certain, in spite of all the red letters that might have been printed and issued, in spite of all the defamatory leaflets issued against the Labour party, that not one would have voted Unionist if he had known that this Bill was coming along which practically denationalises Scotland. I feel so strongly on this matter that I dare not let myself go; I have not language at my disposal. I cannot understand how Scotsmen, doing Scottish business, looking after the interests of Scotland, can put their country aside simply because of party ties. We should look after our country and see that efficiency is maintained. I maintain that the present Boards, bad as they are, because we do not get anything like we ought to get, are much better, will prove far more efficient and be more economical than Departments, and I trust that at the eleventh hour the Secretary of State will not allow Scotland to be subjected to this humiliation. It is a humiliation, and I am sure that in the days to come the people of Scotland will see that it has been a humiliation and will deal drastically with hon. Members who dared to take away the only remnant left of Scottish nationality.