Evening Republican, Volume 16, Number 282, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 25 November 1912 — CRUSADE ON BIRDS’ BEHALF [ARTICLE]

CRUSADE ON BIRDS’ BEHALF

Radical Measure to Be Introduced in the English Parliament —Protection of Feathered Tribe. London.—A new crusade against the killing of birds in order to supply feathers for millinery !b in progress here, and.a bill Is soon to be introduced in parliament which, if it becomes law, will prevent many of the cruelest of the practices which result from the demand for feathers. Lady Brooke, Ranee of Sarawak, presided at a lecture In support of the plumage bill for the protection of wild birds, at the Whitehall rooms. She said she thought that women had a tremendous part to play in advising the making of laws against the wearing of feathers. It was entirely women’s part to do this, because It was for women that the birds were killed, and women wore the feathers. James Buckland lectured on “The Value of Wild Bird Life to the Empire.” He said that the feathers uped In. millinery were the “wedding garments of the birds." To be of any value In millinery the feathers must be taken before the birds attempted to rear their young. The prohibition to export plumage from India and Australia had been rendered abortive by the illicit trade in feathers, and Great Britain was the receiver of the

stolen goods. If the truth could be told about the Calcutta custom house In relation to certain persons in London the public conscience would be shocked by the extent of the smuggling of feathers. With the passing of the pHimage bill this trad* would be stopped at once. George Greenwood, M.* P., proposed and Captain Tallby seconded a resolution strongly appealinlg to the' government to grant facilities for placfng the plumage bill on the statute book. The resolution was carried.