RATS!

Stratford Evening Post, Volume II, Issue 451, 3 January 1934, Page 8

RATS!

' ''">*':''* &*'£: »» TyiV'""'' 1 "' i'.9 erf " ' •",",'.. r u I v. ; 0!. •.! .n'lrmg, j Essex,-last month, ferociously brandish- j ing an air gun. "Rats! There won't be no such animals when we've finished with them." j With that terse sentence the resident j crystallised the attitude in which the Rural District of Tendring embarked on its annual crusade against rats. Tendring has a hatred of rats embittered by memories of riddled haystacks and ruined corn, and November finds the whole of its hundred odd square miles of territory the scene of ruthless warfare. "Cyanide gas, poison, rifles, traps, dogs, and an almost unlimited supply of hearty club-wielders are the weapons we employ," Mr. H. L. Ward, clerk of the council and general of the army of 25,000 inhabitants, stated. "Each rat has a price of twopence on its tail, and last year 20,650 of them were brought in. j That is expensive, but the amount is | much less than the cost of the damage the rats would do if unchecked." The writer watched some of the 174 farmers who are lieutenants under Mr. Ward preparing their feudal levies for action. Keen rivalry exists among the parishes of the district to collect the largest number of tails. It was stated that zero hour was one minute past twelve that morning, but it was not expected the slaughter would begin until that evening.

The speaker was wrong. The campaign opened at 7.15 a.m. in the yard of the Black Boy Tavern, when Kip, the proudest cat in Tendring, killed a fine young specimen. What Kip did with the valuable tail, however, no one appeared to know.