Birds as Messengers 



week, but they require rest after them. It 

 has been calculated that as many as 100,000 

 PIGEONS were employed by the British forces 

 during the war, and their demobilisation 

 was announced in January 1919 (Daily News, 



22.1.19). 



In November 1914 the German invaders 

 of France issued orders by which it was " ex- 

 pressly forbidden to keep live PIGEONS of 

 any breed/' and a penalty of fifty francs for 

 each bird was imposed. The wretched in- 

 habitants reluctantly killed all the birds 

 they could, but many escaped and were 

 driven to the fields. Here they were shot 

 at by any passing German soldier, and if 

 they alighted on some peasant's roof they 

 were driven off with volleys of stones for fear 

 of incurring the penalty of a fine : PIGEONS 

 had a hard time of it. It has been estimated 

 that a million Belgian PIGEONS were stolen 

 by the Germans during their occupation ; 

 just before the Armistice some 25,000 were 

 taken, of which only 5,000 were found at 

 Spandau. Little hope is entertained of re- 

 covering the remainder of the missing birds, 



7 



