A MEETING arranged by the University of London Animal Welfare Society (ULAWS) was held in the Beveridge Hall of the University of London on March 22 to discuss “Man's Relation to Nature and his Response” with reference to “the Survey and Regulation of British Fauna”. The chairman, Sir P. Chalmers Mitchell, said that the so-called ‘balance of Nature’ is a myth and has not existed since glacial times, when there were no animals in Britain to be balanced. We interfere too much for there to be one and interference is no good without knowledge. The Marquess of Tavistock showed how conflicting interests make legislation difficult. Fruit farmers and the owners of grouse moors oppose the protection of bullfinches and peregrine falcons respectively. There is no need to fear the introduction of wild birds for, unlike alien rodents, they find competition too strong. As regards method of control, there is no difficulty in shooting deer in the Highlands, but in the wooded Lowlands hunting is kinder. Shooting is often unkind to foxes owing to the uncertainty of aim. Otters are neutral in sporting streams, killing some game fish but keeping down eels ; but they are harmful in trout hatcheries and to ornamental wild fowl. Protecting stoats and weasels to keep rabbits down is a fallacy. Prof. F. A. E. Crew referred to the need for research on the ecology of British mammals ; he suggested that we should have something like the U.S. Biological Survey, that the Bureau of Animal Population should be supported, and the staffs of museums and university departments should be enlarged. Sir Roy Robinson, chairman of the Forestry Commission, said that complaints about his treatment of animals were sentimental and not based on knowledge. Rabbits should be exterminated. There are too many deer and foxes. The only mammal in need of protection is the pine marten, and he would like to harbour them. All birds, except black-game and caper-cailzie, should be encouraged in forests. Other speakers referred to the desirability and the difficulties of rabbit extermination in various parts of Great Britain.