May 30, 1967

n MR COLM Brogan, 28 Ridgmont Gardens, London WC1, wrote to the editor of The Herald, continuing a debate about ''Red Clydeside''. ''It is not a moot point whether John MacLean suffered from delusions of persecution. He was imprisoned because he was a genuine revolutionary. That he suffered is beyond all question, but he was a man who for the best of motives tried to wreck and overturn the society in which he lived. What else could that society do but put him in prison? Lenin was highly indignant at the treatment of MacLean, but in Lenin's own Russia, MacLean would have been put against a wall and shot.

''I think it was good that John MacLean died before he was forced to see the depths of the

evil of the vision he had served with such sacrificial zeal.''

n THE Herald reported: ''Three Stonehaven workmen digging a hole yesterday found a message in a bottle. It was signed, 'The Three Bs' and dated August 13, 1934. It read: 'Here's to the one who finds this bottle; may he never prosper or grow fat, nor wear a smug face beneath a hat'.''

n THE General Assembly of the Church of Scotland heard that Scotland had 359 ministers fewer in 1966 than in 1948 - although the population had increased by 150,000. The church was warned that by 1987 it would be 400 ministers short.

n MR DAVID Brown retired after 36 years as superintendent of Perth Town Council swimming baths - and was ceremonially thrown into the pool by his staff.