I’m at my father’s house today, posting this via e-mail. It’s his 60th
birthday this week and I’ve come home to give him his gift.
He’s unearthed a copy of the Daily Express from the day he was born
and on the front cover, amid news about the destruction of Budapest,
is a piece about a stranded whale. It seems animal rights have changed
somewhat in the last 60 years.
Thirteen pounds of T.N.T failed yesterday to move a giant whale
stranded on the Mull of Kintyre. A naval squad wearing gas masks then
hacked the carcase with axes and played a strong jet of water on it.
It slowly broke up and lime will complete the destruction.
Let’s hope the poor chap was dead before they got to him. Perhaps if
he had been an ordinary size whale, rather than a giant, they would
have simply picked him up and put him back in the water.