ELEVEN days have passed since the last wartime phosphorus stick was found washed ashore on a Scottish beach, but the fears of communities on Ayrshire, Clyde and Argyll coastlines remain.

It is more than likely other potentially lethal munitions will be discovered soon.

As the coastguard conceded yesterday, the weather since December 28 has been far from attractive for seaside strolls, reducing numbers of people on beaches to uncover the flares. The last was found on Largs beach.

Political fall-outs and environmental concerns also remain, and arguably were deepened by yesterday's Scottish Office study into the munitions dumping ground, Beaufort's Dyke.

The precise source of the sudden appearance of thousands of dangerous flares, causing so much public anguish, remains to be identified. It emerged that hundreds of thousands of tonnes of munitions - including shells, bombs, landmines, grenades, and rockets - were dropped short of the deep water target off the west coast.

Scottish Environment Minister Lord Lindsay denied there was conclusive evidence to show that British Gas pipe laying operations had dislodged the phosphorus sticks which are inert in water but smoulder spontaneously and burn in the presence of air.

However, he acknowledged in all probability that ``there could be a link''.

It was confirmed categorically that the gas pipeline between Scotland and Northern Ireland has been laid through an area where munitions were dropped short. An electricity interconnector will be commissioned when safety criteria are met.

Since October, more than 4000 of the bone-textured cylinders, which look similar to paint rollers, have drifted ashore from Galloway to Campbeltown.

Up to 900 phosphorus flares were recovered in just three days. High concentrations were around Stevenston, Saltcoats, and Arran, although the first injured victim was in Campbeltown.

Beaufort's Dyke, a 263-fathom trench, lies in the North Channel between Stranraer and Belfast, and is home for thousands of tonnes of chemical weapons and munitions from the Second World War.

The sudden appearance of toxic, explosive materials on popular beaches in October led to a media frenzy, fed in part by many Scottish MPs claiming the seabed excavations for British Gas north of the trench had disturbed the dump.

However, The Herald had spotlighted the problem some 10 years ago when it revealed millions of tons of munitions had been dumped off the south-west coast of Scotland.

At the time, crewmen who had worked on board the ships charged with dumping the dangerous cargoes admitted that to save time they had dumped material in shallower waters before reaching the authorised disposal site.

So yesterday's ``revelation'' that munitions were dropped short of the target should come as no surprise to anyone, including the Scottish Office and commercial concerns such as British Gas and ScottishPower.

But it can be argued a pattern has developed over the years since The Herald's original revelation. Put simply, it involves Government ``buck passing'' over responsibility.

By 1990, when phosphorus sticks were washed up on the coast near the holiday resort of Portpatrick, near Stranraer, the Government had announced plans to clamp down on illegal dumping at sea.

At the time, the Scottish Office pointed out that Beaufort's Dyke had not been used since 1973 and that the Army had no record of any phosphorus items being dumped there.

Nevertheless, last year's damaging appearances brought another wave of passing the buck.

The Ministry of Defence, the Ministry of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food (MAFF), and the Scottish Office denied responsibility for investigating the underwater source of the munitions. Each argued, in effect, that it was a matter for the other.

As police, coastguards, and bomb disposal experts removed the potentially lethal munitions from shorelines, and warning signs went up on beaches, the Scottish Office finally agreed to commission an emergency survey of the arms dump.

It was in response to the outcry over allegations that commercial interests were being put ahead of public safety.

One source had alleged the sticks were washed ashore because the sea bed was ``ploughed'' to eliminate any munitions in preparation for laying the interconnector pipeline.

The work ended in early November, and British Gas yesterday insisted it was conducted in strict accordance of procedures agreed with the Department of Trade and Industry, the Health and Safety Executive, and the Ministry of Defence.

Yesterday's report has led to demands for extensive, further underwater surveys of the Irish Sea around Beaufort's Dyke. Concentrating on that area is just not good enough, according to the Celtic League.

It warned attention has already been diverted away from ``a staggering'' 22 known sites where similar munitions have been dumped.

These include Loch Linnhe, the Sound of Mull, the Isle of May, and the Firth of Clyde. Some, including Loch Linnhe, and Milford Haven in Wales, were shallow inlet areas, while others had ``contents almost too frightful to contemplate''.

A spokesman said it was hoped the league's 12-year campaign for more information on the disposal of munitions as sea will start to bear fruit because of Beaufort's Dyke.

The European Commission is to investigate the unstable explosives being washed up on beaches. Its inquiry will also cover claims that radioactive nuclear waste was dumped secretly in the area of Beaufort's Dyke and could now be leaking.