ATHENE NEWNHAM: To go on an Elephant Kraal'
This morning Mrs. Athene Newnham is to tell listeners of her experiences when she witnessed an elephant kraal at Ambanpola in the north-west province of Ceylon.
She is to describe how she motored ninety odd miles from Colombo to the support line, as it were, and then had to transfer to a jolting bullock cart to reach the scene of action. Her talk is alive with local colour, and one of the most vivid in this interesting series.
A kraal, or driving of wild elephants into a stockade, is an affair of days and nights. She will tell listeners how it is done, the unexpected way in which the beaters are refreshed, and the part tame elephants play in the proceeding. It is all very exciting ; pathetic, too. But at least the drives don't take place until the herds get so big that they are damaging crops. There was one young tusker who cried with grief and anger at being caught, and it is a nice touch in the talk when Mrs. Newnham describes how she went into the stockade the next morning and comforted the poor prisoner with a hunk of bread.