WAR HOURSE SCANDAL

Dominion, Volume 11, Issue 5, 1 October 1917, Page 6

WAR HOURSE SCANDAL

33,000 said' TO HAVE DIED IN AMERICA

. In the belief that publicity is the only ramedy for a scuiida-loufi st&t© of things which is calculated to excite the greatest horror and indiguation, I/mdon "Truth recently published a remarkable artiole regarding tho supply' of horses to the A "Up to a recent date—somewhere'a,bout the end of May last—upwards of a quarter of a million Army horses and mules had died during the war,: said -Truth. "In addition to these some SO,OOO had been sold owing to age or disease. ih» total therefore coines to upwards of 280,000 animals, and this figure does not include animals that have died.in Mesopotamia or in operations in Africa oiitiido Egypt, for most of which tho Indian Government is probably accountable.-Up* wards of a million been purchased by the British Government during the war, and the stock on hand at the beginning of th e w ar was nominally about 20,000. Ab the latter figure is negligible in:relation J" the others,'it may be safely assumed that more than 25 per cent, of the auimals purchased have died. Such ■ a rate cf mortality il beyond excuse or palliation* while the 30,000 Sales in consequence of age or disease point directly to ecandaLous laxity in buying. . f ' "In addition to the animals that have died there were at a qmte_ recent date 84,000 more under treatment in vetennary hospitals in England, France. andjho Mediterranean Expenditionary lorces. The rate of mortality appears to have been fairly unifonn everywhere, presum?blv more or less in proportion to the ste of rto local forces. Thus, mals have died, at Home U3,000 in ■France, 12,000 in-Egypt, and Salonika. The last figure is epc""But the most significant fact of all has lice mevbns decease. In this is inS ™blv to be found the explanation tiwu country, would lift^o 1,0 3 W e the military ;authoriopened ■ . or diehone6ty of the fficiah in thia business and t!m extent to which the country ™ ben, nlundoved in consequence. , wit batlio Eireil for none of those things. , dX'dne 0 to tJ action' are"no considerable proprhon of the whole. I cannot give the total fig«re» under this head, but in one week, out of more than '5000 deaths m Trance, ; only 118 were due to pwsliot.younds-a triflingncrcentage. 'Enemy. action linve contributed to the «unc extent to tho *&&&&£ qualHy .of the animals purchased I am told that somei hich have survived the Atlantic voyage i. i, n nTBr thirtv vears old. home ai» even said to have died up on nt the port, of shipment- under the exer Hon of San, on'loar.l t be taken for wanted that Uc £ ant 'horseniastership/nid to tent downright ill-treatment On all these mints men who have sorred at the front can give evidence. I kw many lurid on the t " l « oc n t - But the figures show that the the Whole scandal lies acrJ«s the Atlantic, where the wretched beafts are bought. The facts citp.il, nays ou.r contemporary, can be verified from official records; and as the irerajre price of a horse is about ,£4o', this part of the 6car.dal is evidently measured in millions of money..