64 THE HORSE AND THE WAR 



concern. It was, as already explained, just about to flicker out of existence 

 after having apparently fulfilled its original useful purpose. Space it had 

 once covered had been taken over by the General Indian Base Authorities. 

 All that and more had to be instantly re-claimed. Kraals for mules to run 

 loose in, fencing for the same, watering and feeding, tents for the personnel, 

 and a hundred other details essential to the working of a Remount camp had 

 to be improvised. At the end of six months they may still be " carrying on " 

 under certain difficulties and with deficiencies as regards the well-being of 

 men and horses still to be made good. But the great thing is that there 

 exists an ever-cheerful will to make the best of things as they happen to be, 

 to never admit defeat, and to wait for the day when the Royal Engineers will 

 have the labour available, and after that, the material, and after that again, 

 the authority, passed on from Authority to Authority, to build and improve 

 and make wholly efficient and sanitary a depot which looks like continuing 

 a vigorous existence until at last the " Cease Fire " sounds. 



An ample ration and a splendid climate work wonders for the horses and 

 mules. They thrive and " do " in a way which is altogether unknown in the 

 north and on the Enghsh side of the Channel ; for, in that sheltered valley 

 amid the mountains that extend to the coast, biting winds and weeks on end 

 of drab skies and chilHng rain are unknown. Instead the sun more often 

 than not streams out from lambent skies and kindles warmth and vigour and 

 health in man and beast. Mules in particular do well when given the compara- 

 tive freedom of the kraals or paddocks. A heavy rain may make deep mud 

 in a night, but it is muscle making for the mule as he laboriously moves about. 

 And as the average daily strength at one time was about the same as the 

 biggest depot in the whole of the Remount Service some horses of necessity 

 have to be picketed on long lines. It must be their ultimate lot as they 

 draw nearer to the real line, so that the necessity at the Base has quite a useful 

 side to it. 



Those with any knowledge of horse management in India know well 

 enough how thoroughly capable and dependable are the pukka Indian syces 

 and sowars of native cavalry. There they form the nucleus of the native 

 establishment of workers, and one could not wish for better or more efficient 

 workers. But it so happens that there are not sufficient of them, and the 

 services are being utilized of those natives of India, who have been brought to 

 France to take their place on the Lines of Communication and at the Fn nt as 

 R.F.A. drivers in Ammunition Columns. They may have been anything in 

 India before being recruited and put into khaki, a view which is strengthened 

 when you see them introduced for the first time to our army horses and mules. 

 They seem at first so absolutely heart-breaking and hopeless as a Remount pro- 

 position, but they do — some do — make certain progress, and there can be no 

 doubt that their shaping into R.F.A. drivers is assisted by the help they were 

 called upon to give in the watering, feeding, and exercising of remounts. 

 Mules, one noticed, had the utmost contempt for them. To see a native of 

 this class stalking a mule in a kraal and the latter steadily and determinedly 

 walking away is a sight to make you forget there's a war on. 



You could not doubt that these " followers," drawn as they were from 



