1 MARCH 1930, Page 17

One example of the sharp contrast between races in such

things must have appealed to all who were present, A little crowd was on the seashore watching the fishermen drawing in their nets, all silvered with shoals of whitebait,and sardines. In the net was also entangled a guillemot. When the fisher- man took it out and prepared in the grimmest manner, and • with obvious enjoyment, to kill it, every _native crowded to

see the thing done and every visitor simultaneously turned away, most, of them leaving the scene at once. It is, I think, true to say that few.people are more universally kind than the Apanish to their children or more callous and therefore cruel towards lesser animals. How such contrasts come to be I do not. know. Kindness to animals is not a mark only of an advanced _Anglo-Saxon civilization. It has been a religion among very primitive, people in the East from the dawn of history. in France foklItaly appreciation of birds has much increased of late years, thanks wholly to what we call an ad hoc education. The knowledge of the economic value of birds has led insensibly to a sympathetic regard for their welfare. The movement which is world-wide must soon spread to Spain. For myself, I have thought that such work is most suitable to a sub-section of the League of Nations. After all, the most useful of birds and some of the most melodious take no heed of either natural or national boundaries. Protection must therefore be international, and one of the favourite routes is through Portugal and Spain.