Fox Killed In Rocket Station

Northern Advocate, 5 January 1948, Page 2

Fox Killed In Rocket Station

LONDON.—The Bicester Hunt, in full regalia and full cry. got through a guarded wire fence at the rocket station at Westcott (Buckinghamshire) and killed a fox near a hush-hush workshop, with these consequences:— (1) Security police want to know how vital defences were breached. (2) Station workers want to know what some of the hunting men and women are doing' about the Government's labour direction scheme. (3) Hunting men and women want to know by what legal right the station officials confiscated the fox. Scientists working in the laboratories were startled by the sound of the hunting horn and the cries of hounds and men. TOO LATE OveratlecT woriunen stopped building rocket-testing beds and rushed to rescue the fox, but they were too .late. Hounds had done the job—signalled by a lo.ng blow on the horn. Men in overalls and denims turned to those in pink coats and bowlers and cried: “Why aren't you working?”

Officials asked: “How did you get into a Government research station?” To this the riders answered: “We want the fox. please.” No progress was made in the discussion, and the Hunt was ordered off the premise's. The Hunt secretary said later that hounds got. through a gap in the fence, but he brought them out. There was no fox for miles.

But a Supply Ministry official stated that “a fox was killed inside the rocket station.”

The Bicester Hunt was out again next day, but the old and new worlds kept their distances.