2 INTRODUCTION. 



who were College graduates. Only for periodical inspections 

 and on the occasion of outbreaks or apprehended outbreaks of 

 contagious disease were Officers, A.V.C. called in to Silladar 

 Units and Transport. In a few words, the pre-war system was 

 a purely scratch arrangement of borrowing personnel from 

 units for departmental purposes, totally excluding from skilled 

 veterinary care and treatment the great majority of Indian 

 Cavalry, and the whole of the Transport. In war, the whole 

 of the animals comprising a Field Force came under the Army 

 Veterinary Service, and treatment for the most part was 

 centred in Field Veterinary Hospitals specially njobilized. 

 The personnel for these again was obtained under temporary 

 arrangements. It will be seen that a different system was 

 followed in war to what existed in peace, and it will be agreed 

 that such a state of affairs does not commend itself to efficiency, 

 and particularly with a personnel for the inost part untrained. 

 In 1918 an improvement was made. The Government of 

 India sanctioned the transfer of the Veterinary Assistants of 

 Indian Cavalry and Transport to the Veterinary Service, and 

 they were incorporated into the Indian Veterinary Corps. The 

 Cadre strength in Officers of the Eoyal Army Veterinary Corps 

 was increased from 63 to 95, to admit of the more direct super- 

 vision and care of animals. The borrowing of the balance of 

 the necessary personnel, however, still continues, carrying in its 

 train an evil principle of counting men effective in two places 

 for two separate purposes. This is absolutely opposed to esprit 

 de corps and truly efficient service. 



I have purposely outlined the above Indian system, as I hope 

 to show by contrast in the course of this article what good 

 organization, tempered in the fire of war, really means, and 

 how easy it is for a service well knit, and with its component 

 parts and individual items of personnel knowing its functions 

 and particular duties so well, to undertake anything that a war 

 of any magnitude can produce, where difficulties are but wafer- 

 cakes, and responsibilities become a pleasure. At the same 

 time I should like to mention that there is now under consider- 

 ation a scheme for the formation of a self-contained Army 

 Veterinary Corps in India which, if it materializes, will place 

 Veterinary Service in that Country on the topmost rung of the 



