Dogs with Foreign Armies 141 



In the British Army, the whole messenger dog service bad 

 been concentrated under the signal service (Royal Engin 

 This was quite a good method, as far as it went, and in the 

 urgent necessity of the hour, was perhaps the best that 

 could be devised, in order to ensure rapidity of organizatii id ; 

 but there is no doubt, that while it was highly important 

 that the signal service should receive its full complement 

 of dogs, it would also have been of great value, if each 

 division of our army had also had corps of dogs indepen- 

 dently of the signal service. I know several divisional 

 generals were strongly of this opinion, and had the war 

 continued much longer, additional organization, along these 

 lines, would, no doubt, have been instituted. The dogs 

 would then have been available for different corps in the 

 divisions, such as the Machine-Gun Corps, with which they 

 would have been exceedingly useful. I had many applica- 

 tions from officers of this corps for messenger dogs. They 

 stated, that when a machine-gun party was sent out with 

 the attacking troops, they had very often no means of 

 knowing if it had reached its objective safely, and they 

 would have been very glad of a dog to send up with the 

 party to be slipped with the necessary information. In 

 any future organization I should certainly recommend 

 a wider concentration of the Dog Corps. 

 To return to General Gouraud's report : 



"It is to the interest of all to assist in the period oi 

 stabilizing during the dog's training. The training thus 

 accomplished, the dog is capable of fulfilling its mission 

 during the attacks, or during the war of movement. 



On all occasions it is necessary to follow these directions : 

 The dog which it is desired to use as a messenger must be 

 conducted to the point of departure by a stranger .... 



16 



