HORSES FOR THE ARMY.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LI, Issue 15563, 21 March 1914, Page 5 (Supplement)

HORSES FOR THE ARMY.

BRITAIN'S SMALL SUPPLY. Diiuko the last six months considerable popular attention has been directed to the resources of the nation in horseflesh and to the ability of the Army Council to find enough horses to equip regular and territorial troops in case of mobilisation, says an English military expert. It Ins been asserted that our horse population is dwindling, and that it is already difficult to find mounts for yeomanry in peace, and that a number of horses do duty in more than one regiment. Critics recall the dark days of tlie South African War, when Europe and America were scoured to find horses at inordinate and reckless expense.

The Army Council is organising and gradually completing a scheme of horse registration, which is probably the best practicable arrangement in the absence of better denned laws for the contingency of nobilisation. Adjutants of territorial regimente are being replaced in the remount duties by specially employed officer*, who will generally be selected from the retired list. Although expert opinion differs considerably as to the state of our horse-breeding industry and as to the strength of our horse population, it is tolerablv certain that for some years to come we shall, at any rate, possess horses enough to equip the small forces which we aspire to mobilise in a national emergencyboth regular and territorial. The real anxiety results from the certainty that the conditions of the last war will repeat themselves in more acute form in the nest. No strategist imagines for an instant that our country will emerge victorious from a great conflict with the 100,000 combatant troops which-we claim to be able to send abroad at short notice. These numbers had to be doubled to quell the peasants of South Africa, and they will have to be multiplied five or six times to supply the contingent required of the British Empire in a Continental struggle, if Britain's allies are to be effectually succoured. Moreover, the possibilities of war are uuforesaeable. It is only .certain that when it takes place it will demand far greater efforts than any statesman forecasts before the outbreak.

It is evident that the increased substitution of automobile for horse-drawn vehicles will reduce the available number of light horses both for saddle and draught in these islands. In a Continental war we should be restricted to America for foreign purchase, and, in the absence of any effective Government scheme for horse-breeding in Canada, it is certain that the price of horses will become a very serious consideration. Horses are used up even more rapidly than men in war.

Twelve months ago the 15tb Hussars, returning from South Africa, took over the cobs of the mounted infantry troops of the Aldershot command, and - the Secretary of State will probably make a statement on the subject. When the other regiments are withdrawn from the Cape the regular army at home will possess a fair proportion of cavalry. It is certain that this hybrid arm will not be revived by any military chief of the modern school. It served a useful purpose ai a makeshift in colonial wars, but to take horses from an under-mounted cavalry and men from an under-manned infantry to organise troops handicapped by inability to ride and incapacity to charge, was extravagant and aimless. It is needless to state that no military Power hits imitated our mounted "infantry;" on the contrary, all the cavalries of the world are now trained to fight on horse as well as on foot, to resort as occasion demands to fire or shock tactics alternately.