21 MAY 1948, Page 16

Island' Sanctuaries .

An old humorist of a politician used to say when the Monroe Doctrine was in question that he had a Monroe Doctrine for us, to wit, that "all islands are British." A naturalist might begin to say that all islands are sanctuaries. Many, of course, are protected by reason of their insularity, but the number actually reserved as sanctuary, with Scott Head, that " almost island," and Skokholm in the lead. The latest addition is a small treeless waste in Scotland where the zeal for natural history begins to approach almost to the Norfolk level. Witness, for example, the opening article in last month's Blackwood, which is the best bird-pro- tection story I have ever read, a model worthy of comparison with the Snow Goose ; and it embodies a most happy event, the return of the spoonbill as a breeding species in England. The new sanctuary is Lady Isle in the Firth of Clyde, and, like Grassholm, it is to be filmed.