Q. How reliable is this source as evidence about why people wanted to emigrate?

To the Secretary of State for Scotland from the Fishermen of Fraserburgh, 1888

For some time now we have been thinking about emigration as a way out of the serious decline of our main industry – the herring fishing. In no part of the East Coast have the losses been as serious as in Fraserburgh. It is vital that a scheme of emigration should be carried out so that the surplus population may avoid inevitable distress.