A TASK IN BERLIN

Evening Post, Volume CXVI, Issue 60, 12 March 1934, Page 11

A TASK IN BERLIN

NEW ROLE FOR PARROTS

The firemen of Berlin, still busy at their humane task of succouring animals and - others in distress, have at last met a problem which defeated all their.. ingenuity. .They have in recent months quickly and painlessly removed bees from beards, swans from roofs of apartment houses, escaped lions from the gates of allotment colonies, and ducks from the ice; but Lora, a .Berlin parrot, was too much for1 them. Lora had been taught by her mistress, to call "Stop," "Go," and other commands in the voice of a traffic policeman, and recently, the door of her eago and window having- been left open, she took her perch on a chestnut tree in a Tempelhof thoroughfare, and directed the traffic from there. The firemen were alarmed, but Lora, who was no doubt appropriately coloured rod, yellow, and green, ascended from bough to bough as her pursuers came within reaching distance of her until they retired discomfited. Eventually Lora of her own free will returned to her cage. Though thc!\ firemen failed in this case, they succeeded in solving an even more baffling problem some timo ago, when they wero called to capture a large snake which had escaped from some private owner. A packing-case was placed in front of the snake, and the reptile was then urged, by a hose played on it from behind, to enter. The snake had no choice but to yield, for to swim upstream and enter the hose would also have meant captivity.

Ir. Germany church revenue is collected by the State through a. 10 per cent, additional tax imposed on church members. Since 1910 this' tax has proved such a burden that more than 3,100,000 adherents have renounced their religion to avoid paying it.