[To THE EDrroa or Tel "SpEcrwrox.”] trust Mr. Cole's letter
in your columns (January 3rd) about the traffic in old live horses will give many readers a fresh impulse to oppose that traffic. I have been a chaplain in France for ten years. I have always aimed at arousing English people's interest in the work of the Societe Proteetrice, and since coming to Boulogne have been put on the committee of the local branch, and have Been the work of the Societe from the inside. One thing I can assure you of. It is that French people value greatly the help and encouragement that English people give them in the cause of kindness and humanity. Co-operation in this matter is one of the factors that promote international goodwill. I have often had to convey to my congregation from our committee messages of cordial thanks for their support and interest England has, in fact, largely given the impulse to the growing and spread- • ing movement in favour of kindness to animals. The Continent, or France at any rate, feels this and appreciates it. The one really big blot on England's honour, in this aspect of it, is the traffic in old horses. Frenchmen ask me where in England do the old horses come from. I answer I do not know. I retreat on the fact that I have lived very little in England since I grew up. I say frankly I cannot make it out. A feeling of shame comes over me. I cannot understand at all why this exception to the general humaneness of England's manage- ment is tolerated. I can assure you this thing shocks and disgusts our French fellow-workers in the cause of humanity; and the Spectator will hold a lasting place in their grateful memory if its powerful influence procures the suppression of this traffic, or at least the modification of it indicated by Mr. Cole. Mr. Cole has rightly pointed out that even if the sufferings of the horses are minimized at the port of landing, you cannot tell what happens to them elsewhere. In Boulogne, I believe, our President, M. Fontaine, himself keeps an eye on the disembarkation of horses ; but some are taken further afield, and it is not everywhere that you find a man at once such a lover of animals and so energetic as he. I may add
that EL A. F. Dupont is conducting a vigorous campaign in his paper dratualia against this traffic.—I am, Sir, ike.,
English Chaplain.
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