Canada: Haggis

Canada's Prices Board took time out from rationing ructions to make a pronouncement cheering to all orthodox Scots. Haggis, it said, could be served on meatless St. Andrew's Day (Friday, Nov. 30).

Canada's Scots sighed with relief. A real Scots night without haggis would be unthinkable, haggis without meat impossible. Now they could boil a sheep's stomach bag (with the windpipe hanging over the side of the pot to carry off impurities), stuff it with ground heart, liver, lights, suet, onions, oatmeal and seasoning, and boil again. The steaming, evil-looking haggis would be brought to the banquet table to the skirl of bagpipes and the words of Bobby Burns's ode to "the great chieftain o' the puddin' race."

A haggisless St. Andrew's Day had faced Scots in Canada once before—in 1943. Then, they had flooded Ottawa with skirls of protest. This time the forewarned Board ruled: ". . . it was felt that an exception could be made for haggis, because as many Scotsmen contend it is a hardship to eat it as maintain it is a hardship to go without it."