OLD WAR HORSES

Evening Post, Volume CXXIII, Issue 18, 22 January 1937, Page 16

OLD WAR HORSES

ALMOST ALL DESTROYED

The pitiable state of the horses which were used by the British Armydaring the war and were afterwards sold to local inhabitants was referred to in the House of Commons recently, and an assurance was given that all such animals are now either destroyed under military supervision or brought back to England. The plight of these animals has been the subject of considerable correspondence in the. columns of the "Manchester Guardian," the readers of which have recently subscribed a substantial sum towards the fund raised by Our Dumb Friends League to enable them to be taken out of their present ownership. The matter was raised in the House by Mr. E. A. Radford, Conservative member for Rusholme, who asked the Secretary for War whether his attention had been drawn to the pitiable state of the survivors of the British Army horses and mules which were sold in Belgium in 1919 and whether, following similar revelations with regard to those which were sold in Egypt about the same time, he would give instructions that in future no such sales should be made abroad, but that all British Army horses and other transport animals no longer required for service should either be brought back to Britain or be painlessly destroyed by our army authorities in the country where they may be. Sir Victor Warrender (Finance Secretary, War Office) said the Minister's attention had been drawn to this matter. It had for some time been the policy of the Army Council that all horses and transport animals which became surplus to military requirements while abroad should be either brought back to the United Kingdom or destroyed under military supervision, and instructions to this effect had been issued. (Cheers.) None would be sold to local inhabitants. Mr. Radford asked Sir Victor to convey to the Secretary for State the assurance that this decision would give widespread satisfaction.