May I congratulate the German Ambassador, Hubert Ziegler, for his excellent article of May 27 on Hunting In Germany. It should be required reading for the new Parliamentary Secretary for Agriculture, Fisheries and Animal Rights and, most of all, for the Maltese hunting federation.

The article contained an absolutely exemplary description of how a well-ordered and civilised country sets about finding the right balance between conservation and the sport of game-shooting. What the article demonstrated above all was that this was achieved by inculcating the most stringent standards of training, education, behaviour and discipline in hunters from the start.

It also highlighted how even a country like Germany, which is vast by comparison with Malta, ensured that hunters’ access to land to shoot on was carefully controlled. In the ambassador’s words, “To put it in a nutshell, only people who can prove their competence, responsibility and goodwill are allowed to become hunters in Germany”.

Is it too much to hope that the Government and hunters here might take some lessons from this example of how hunting should be conducted?

Ambassador Ziegler will shortly be departing Malta. Friends of Germany wish him well in his retirement.