CONFERENCE OF DELEGATES OF 

 CORRESPONDING SOCIETIES 



The Conference was held in the Department of Mineralogy on Friday, 

 August 19, and Monday, August 22, 1938. Sixty-eight Corresponding 

 Societies were represented, the Rt. Hon. the Earl of Onslow presiding. 



Friday, August 19. 



Dr. Tierney, Secretary of the Conference, reported that since the last 

 meeting the Midland Naturalists' Union had been inaugurated, with head- 

 quarters at Birmingham, ' to further the advancement of natural history in 

 the Midland Counties by every practicable means and for the purpose of 

 affording facilities for co-operation and co-ordination between local natural 

 history societies, field clubs and individual workers in the counties of 

 Monmouth, Hereford, Worcester, Warwick, Leicester, Northampton, 

 Rutland, Nottingham and Lincoln.' The Hon. Secretary of the Union is 

 G. Brian Hindle, B.Sc, Avebury House, 55 Newhall Street, Birmingham, 3, 

 from whom full information can be obtained. 



The delegates nominated the following to fill vacancies on the Cor- 

 responding Societies' Committee for the ensuing year : The Earl of Onslow, 

 Mr.N. B. Kinnear. 



THE IMPORTANCE OF NATIONAL PARKS IN THE 

 PRESERVATION OF THE FAUNA OF GREAT BRITAIN 



ADDRESS BY 



The Rt. Hon. the Earl of Onslow, G.B.E., P.C., 

 President of the Conference. 



I HAVE been asked to say a word or two on the subject of the use of National 

 Parks in Great Britain for the preservation of our fauna — or what is left of it. 

 In the first place I think it is necessary to distinguish carefully between 

 what is meant by a National Park in this country and in other countries. 

 I believe that the term ' National Park ' occurs in only one public instru- 

 ment and that is in the documents connected with the Convention for 

 the Protection of the Fauna and Flora of Africa which was concluded in 

 London in 1934. So perhaps for the sake of clarity I may be allowed to 

 quote Article 2 of the Convention which defines what is meant by a National 

 Park considered internationally, if I may so describe it. 



Article 2. 



1 . The expression ' national park ' shall denote an area (a) placed 

 under public control, the boundaries of which shall not be altered or any 

 portion be capable of alienation except by the conipetent legislative 



