The Labor enquirer., 1885-01-24
"a VISITTO SKYE.
The Delegate of the Democratic
Federation Goes to See the
CrOfters.

FeucTdtlOh UOes IO see Tie
Crofters.
The Sheriff Takes Him to His Bosom
But is Rndely Awakened When
the Meetin' Opens.
The agitation which the Crofters o.
Skye are arrying on in order that they
may get their grievances redressed is not
an affair ef Yesterday. 1t is now some
four year, since Messrs McHugh and
Murdoch were sent down to Skye and
the other Hebridean islands as delegates
of the Irish Land League. Up till that
time the Grofters had borne without
murmuring every insult which the tyr
amy of the factor had heaped upon them
and every deprivation which the greed
of absentee landlords had demanded.
The good news brought by the delegates
of the Land League from Ireland aroused
the Highlanders to sense of thelrhposi-
ton. The almost divine mystery which
had enveloped the person of the laird
was dispelled, and landlords and
factors were found to be "men
of like passions" with the Crofters.
whose oppression was no more to be en-
dured than that of any man. Thus the
seed of the present agitation was sown.
At first the Crofters were somewhat
timid, but they encouraged one another
and the first fruits of the agitation was
what is now historically known as the
Battle of the Braes which was fought on
April Is, 1882. The Crofters on Lord
Macdonald's estate refused to pay rent
till their grievances were attended to,
and when summonses Of eviction were
served, they3were publicly burnt and the
civil officers politely told to return at
speed from whence they came. On this
the island of Skye was invaded by the
civil authorities with force of fifty po-
lice, and after sharp tusse with sticks
and stones, in which Crofter women led
the attack on the police, FIVE of the ring
leaders were arrested and taken off to
Inverness. After long trial the prison.
ers were released on payment of small
fine. and no better evidence could be
adduced of the Crofters' case than the
fact that only a nominal penalty was in
fiieted for what %our governing classes"
would ordinarily consider SO serious an
o1ense.
For the last two years the work OF agl
tation anG organization has been ac-
lively sez! led eg, but The attsRtiapa af
the authoi itlgstSss not been required
till some three; months ago when the
London newspapers were full of the RE
volt in Skye There were the usual
reports of outrages and iptimidations
which the press kindly furnishes to the
government on such occasions, and at
length Sir ". Harcourt, yielding to the
pressure of the Inverness county Off
cials, despatched force consisting of
two gunboats, the Forester and Banterer,
together with the troopship Assistance,
with 300 n arines on board. The steam
ship Lochiel was also chartered at the
rate of geo week to convey the civil
officers and force of fifty police. Ow-
ing to the ,garbled stories of newspaper
correspondents and the system Of police
espionage which controls our post office.
it is difficult in matters ike the agitation
in Skye to get true Idea of the situs-
ton except by personal visit. 1t was
accordingly determined that delegate
should be sent down by the Social-Demo-
craft, Federation to take a message prom
Using support and sympathy, and to
express the desire of the Federation to
cooperate with the Crofters in working
for a complete revolution of the social
syste m which robs alike workers in
towT and country. Accordingly on
Thursday, 18th November, I started of
by the might mail from Euston in a
double capacity as correspondent of a
London newspaper and delegate from
the Social Democratic Federation. No
idea could be formed of what was to be
the issue4of things in Skye.zAll sorts OF
conflicting rumors were flying about,
The Grofters were determined to resist
the soldiers; the rest of the Highlanders
were prepared to rise at once on the fir.
ing of the first shot in Skye was the
opinion Of seme. There was no revolt
atall and fhe whole affair was a plant
to prt down constitutional agitation, said
Others, but nothing was really known sc
thert, was a certain amount OF excite
mens in starting for Skye.
The next day / spent in Glasgow IL
order that 1 might interview Messrs
McHugb and Murdoch, who had started
the sgitation four years ago, and get al
particulars Of the men and the districts
from those who knew the country best
Leaving Glasgow twhere terrible tales Q
distress were told me and where Lfount
10000 men out of work / reached 1nver
ness at eight on, Saturday morning. Her
fortune smiled on me, for | found tha
the sheriff, procurator fiscal, and thei
force of police were leaving by the mex
tram fog Strome ferry, the harbor from
whence the steamers start for Portree