i8 THE HORSE AND THE WAR 



out of perspective through the necessit}^ of having to keep close to the surface 

 of things. There were facts I might have revealed which must be kept sealed 

 for sound military reasons. Wonderful things and amazing figures will be 

 available for the light of the open book when the end comes. Till then I 

 have to beg the reader's forbearance with any attempt to piece together certain 

 es ential details in narrative form, beginning with the purchase of our war 

 horses and mules, continuing with their preparation for active service, and 

 concluding with their subsequent welfare in health and sickness in the main 

 theatre of war. 



After all, however, four years have passed during which much has happened 

 to more than justify this modest volume of praise of our animals and those 

 who have had to do with their management and employment. It will prove 

 more than justified also if all in uniform, from the highest to the lowest, who 

 have the responsibility of our war animals in their charge spare no endeavour 

 to exercise every possible care in order that wastage shall be kept at the 

 lowest possible mark. We must realize that the world's horse supply is not 

 inexhaustible and that the drain on it since 1914 has been stupendous. The 

 efficiency of our Armies depends on the preservation of our horse supply, and it 

 is due both to ourselves as a nation and to the horses themselves that the fact 

 should be understood. I believe that every soldier who has to do with horse 

 or mule has come to love them for what they are and the grand work they have 

 done and are doing in and out of the death zones. I want the public who have 

 had no opportunity to know to share that admiration. If I despaired of their 

 doing so I should not, in the midst of strenuous times, have voluntarily and 

 most willingly taken up my pen. Circumstances brought me into intimate 

 touch with them, and because I felt that the outside world ought to know, and 

 indeed wanted to know, I begged for the opportunity to assume the task. 

 The importunate man succeeded at last in enlisting the help of the War Office 

 without which the necessary facilities for first-hand knowledge of the subject 

 in all its phases would not have been forthcoming. So it is that I offer my 

 grateful thanks and acknowledgments to the Quartermaster-General of the 

 Forces (Sir John Cowans, G.C.M.G., K.C.B., M.V.O.), and to my own Chief, 

 the Director of the Remount Department (Major-General Sir W. H. Birkbeck, 

 K.C.B., C.M.G.), for their practical help. To Sir John Cowans, the most 

 distinguished and brilliant administrator of the war, I am further indebted 

 for permission to dedicate the volume, thereby imparting unique distinction 

 to it. 



At my request Brigadier-General T. R. L. Bate, who held a high position 

 with the British Remount Commission in the United States and Canada, and 

 now holds an important post elsewhere, has kindly contributed the chapter 

 on the methods of purchase in those countries. It is a pleasure to acknow- 

 ledge that "The Horse and the War " owes much to the beautiful illustrations 

 by Captain Lionel Edwards, whose fine work must unquestionably gain in 

 value from the fact that as a Remount Officer of much experience he has 

 sketched from life and actual knowledge and not from imagination and 

 hearsay. 



