14 JULY 1928, Page 14

HUNTING AND HUMANITARIANS.

Some astonishingly wrong-headed criticism has been evoked by the winding-up of the Pembrokeshire Fox Hunt; It is rare for a British Hunt to disappear, even to-day when pinched—in a phrase from the Manchester Guardian—between the " industry of the peasant and the penury of the Squire." But unfortunately there is no foundation for the view that the industry of the peasant, which is much less than it used to

be (or the growing humanity of the time) has anything what- ever to do with the collapse of this particular Hunt ; and the rather dramatic sale of hounds, horses and equipment in South Wales. Local disputes and personalities doubtless had their influence ; but the essential reason for the abandonment of the Hunt is neither more nor less than the absence of foxes, killed off along with pheasants, cats and dogs, by the rabbit- trappers. The Hunt would have ceased to exist some time ago if foxes had not been imported in large numbers. Whether the disappearance of the hounds is cause for lamentation or rejoicing is a question that need not be debated here and now, but that users of steel traps (laid in great quantity in the open in flagrant defiance of the law) should wipe out every member of a native wild species is quite beyond debate. It is a grievous thing that humanitarians should alienate sympathy by rejoicing over the destruction of a species by cruel means and the exercise of illegal methods. This rejoicing over the end of a Hunt has included commendation of the trapper. They might as well recommend the use of the pole-trap for killing off the ravens and peregrine falcons that flourish in that wild and beautiful county of " Little England beyond Wales."