i6 THE HORSE AND THE WAR 



going fit and well on active service to France and elsewhere. In this con 

 nection it will interest the reader to draw some comparison between require- 

 ments in the South African war and the vast demands on the world's horse 

 population since August, 1914. For instance, I find the average strength 

 in horses and mules in South Africa was approximately 150,000. I shall not 

 be far off the mark if I say that the strength in 1916 of animals engaged with 

 the British Armies is close on a million. There is a startling difference between 

 the 70,000 horses which were bought in the United Kingdom during the South 

 African war, that is, from October, 1899, to June, 1902, and the 450,000 which 

 the United Kingdom had furnished for the Army between August, 1914, and 

 the middle of 1918. 



I am permitted to say that actually 165,000 horses were impressed in the 

 United Kingdom in the first twelve days of the war. That was a great achieve- 

 ment for which the Remcunt Department of the War Office must be given 

 ample credit. Its organization proved effective when thus highly tried, and 

 though I daresay numbers of horses were bought which were not really suited 

 to military uses, the fact stands out in history that the despatch to France of 

 the original Expeditionary Force and the reinforcements which were immedi- 

 ately drafted over were never once delayed for want of horses. And in spite 

 of casualties, sickness, and ever-swelling demands commensurate with the 

 astonishing growth of our Army, immensely augmented as it was by the 

 arrival of Imperial Forces from overseas, the splendid war horses and mules 

 have always been forthcoming. This surely points more eloquently than any 

 words can do to the foresight, "bigness" of outlook, and judgment of the 

 Quartermaster-General of the Forces and his Director of Remounts. 



The reader must take a big view if the real meaning of the horsing of our 

 Forces at home and abroad and all the organization and cost to the nation 

 involved is to be appreciated. You have to think not in tens of thousands 

 but hundreds of thousands, contemplating in passing the cost of each indivi- 

 dual horse and mule and the immense shipping tonnage which was necessary 

 for the transport from America to the United Kingdom or the Mediterranean 

 of, shall we say, seven or eight hundred thousand animals. An odd hundred 

 thousand or so seems to matter so little ! Think als3 of the tens of thousands 

 sent from Australia and China to India for our doings east of Suez. Remember 

 I am writing in th_^ Autumn of 1918, when the machinery of supply is still 

 running so that the gaps created by the dreadful wastage of devastating war 

 shall be filled and new units and ventures property equipped with animals. 

 Thank goodness the marvellous reservoir over the seas shows no appreciable 

 signs of running dry, and therefore I am at any rate spared the ordeal of 

 having to discuss an alarming eventuality of the kind. It may, of course, be 

 otherwise after the Americans have helped themselves liberally in their own 

 land. Naturally their animals must be in proportion to the vastness of their 

 great Expeditionary Force to Europe. 



I shall not be far wrong if I suggest that of the total brought to this 

 country, the horses were in the proportion, roughly, of three to one mule. On 

 the other hand they were chiefly mules that were sent direct to Salonika and 

 Egypt, both theatres of operations being better suited to the hybrid than 



