Scotsman.com News - Scotland - MI5 file links former SNP leader to Nazi plan

THE former SNP leader Arthur Donaldson plotted to set up a puppet Nazi government in Scotland, according to a recently released wartime spy report. An MI5 file on Mr Donaldson, who led the SNP from 1961 to 1969, claims that he conspired to set up a Vichy-style regime with himself as a "Scottish Quisling" in the wake of Hitler's widely-anticipated invasion. In 1941, Mr Donaldson revealed to a close confidant - who was also a British agent - that a network of Nazi sympathisers were planning to undermine the war effort. His United Scotland Movement was said to be contemplating "spreading confusion by false reports and minor acts of sabotage, and is in fact now endeavouring to start a whispering campaign to spread rumours, particularly of shipping losses". Mr Donaldson told the agent that he believed the German invasion would be a success. "The government would leave the country and England's position would be absolutely hopeless, as poverty and famine would be their only reward for declaring war on Germany. Scotland, on the other hand, has great possibilities," Mr Donaldson is recorded as saying. "The movement in Scotland must then be able to show the German government that it is organised and has a clear-cut policy, that it is not with England in the war. siehe auch: SNP boss planned Nazi Scotland. ARTHUR DONALDSON, the former SNP leader, planned to set up a Vichy-style regime in Scotland in the event of a Nazi invasion, according to a newly released MI5 file