62 British War Dogs 



interest Lord French showed in the dogs, and the few 

 words of helpful encouragement he gave me, at a time 

 when very great difficulties were being overcome, will always 

 be remembered with gratitude. A large number of officers 

 belonging to the Allied and neutral countries also visited 

 the school, besides various travelling parties of Allied and 

 Colonial editors. During the summer of 1917 so numerous 

 were the requests from various officials to visit the school, 

 that a special day had to be set aside once a week for this 

 purpose, so that the training should not be hampered. 



Everything by this time was going with a swing. A 

 large number of men and dogs were being turned out fully 

 trained, and Major Waley had the system of posting in 

 France on a good basis. The demand for more and yet more 

 dogs, both as messengers and guards, became insistent. 

 The former proved themselves speedy and life-saving in 

 maintaining communication in the field, and the latter 

 as a means of substituting man-power and protecting 

 Government property of every kind. In June, 1918, I made 

 an inspection of the entire messenger dog service in France, 

 accompanied by Major Waley. We also visited the French 

 front, and were greatly interested in the work done in the 

 French Army with dogs. I had a conversation with the 

 famous General Gouraud, whose wonderful defence near 

 Rheims in July, 1918, will be remembered. The general 

 is a great believer in dogs, and in speaking of messenger 

 dogs he said : "If only two out of six dogs come back with 

 their messages I am satisfied." 



Previous to this I had already paid two visits to the dogs 

 on the French front. In April, 1915, I visited the French 

 6th Army at Villers Cotterets, and also in December the 

 same year I visited the 7th French Army in the Vosges, 

 where I was hospitably received by Monsieur Paul Megnin, 



