2 MAY 1931, Page 19

SUNDAY AND THE ZOO

[To the Editor of the SPECTATOR.] SIR,—A movement has recently been given popularity in a section of the daily press, to bring about the opening of the Zoological Gardens in London to the general public on Sundays. An avenue of compromise, which may not yet have been explored, might lie in closing the Gardens to the public on Saturdays, and opening them on Sundays. This would conserve the privileges of the Fellows of the Society and their friends' admitted on tickets, many of whom are doubtless more able to free themselves from ties of work on Saturday than are many of the middle and working classes, whose only really free day is Sunday.

That the public should take an interest in the Zoo is both natural and desirable. For to the better judgment of the British public must be reserved the decision whether the confinement of wild animals, under conditions which must ever be unnatural, is justifiable or desirable.—! am, Sir, &c.,

HENRY E. LLOYD GARLE.

58 Boundary Road, London, N.W.8.