CHAPTER XXX 



THE COCKPIT 



If the much-talked-of "Open Door" to British trade 

 becomes an accomplished fact in the Philippines under 

 their new American masters it is just possible that the 

 British poultry-breeder may find a market for at least one 

 class of fowl. 



The favourite pastime of the Filippinos is cock-fighting, 

 and to the Filippino his favourite fighting cock is what 

 his pet bull-pup is to the northern pitman. Its proud 

 master takes it under his arm to church on Sundays 

 and festivals, and its ailments are attended to by medical 

 specialists. 



Now, surely, our poultry-breeders might make a pretty 

 penny by exporting the grand old British breeds of game- 

 cock to the Philippines. 



Cock-fighting is now a discredited and illegal sport in 

 England, and I suppose that our advanced civilisation is 

 right enough in demanding its suppression. But not so 

 very long ago, "cocking" held a high place amongst 

 aristocratic sports, I remember well the eloquent letter in 

 defence of cock-fighting which the late Admiral Rous 

 addressed to the Times in the early seventies, in which he 

 contended that there was nothing cruel or degrading about 

 cock-fighting. Cocks, he urged, naturally love fighting, 

 they revel in it ; where, then, is the brutality — the cruelty — 

 of encouraging them to carry out their natural bent scien- 

 tifically? But, whatever we may think of the Admiral's 

 arguments, the fact remains that many high-minded and 

 genuine sportsmen, like himself, were passionate votaries of 

 the sport, and a few anecdotes of some of them may not be 



