SAD STATE OF WAR HORSES

Otago Witness, Issue 3525, 4 October 1921, Page 25

SAD STATE OF WAR HORSES

A terrible revelation has been made in the British Parliament. The War Office has too many horses out in Mesopotamia, where tiler© is not enough for them to eat and the cost of maintenance is enormous; and the question has arisen a 3 to what is to be done with these dumb heroes that helped to win the war. The proposal of the Government was to reduce the number from just under 60,000 to just 20,000 by destroying great numbers of them. Thirty thousand, it was stated in Parliament, would have to be destroyed. It- seems a terrible fate for these noble creatures (says the Children’s Newspaper), but the cost of bringing so many horses Home would be tremendous. It is supposed that it would cost not less than £4O or £SO each to bring them to London, even if there were room for them. The vision comes up before our eyes of those thrilling charges in which the liorse played &o great a part not many years ago. Once, in the Egyptian desert, at. a given signal, some hundreds of horses burst out of cover at full speed, carrying our men across the sand to surprise a Turkish stronghold. They kept up their speed for miles; they did wonders beyond belief; they arrived nt their destination and won the day; and then—then half of them fell dead. It seems a shame that creatures like these should be slaughtered in thousands now. In war and] in peace, in the hour of trial ana danger, in times of ease and recreation, horse and man have shared the perils and the pleasures of the great adventures of mankind. We have ridden to power and pride on the back of this willing friend of man; East and West, and all the fertile cradle of imagination that lies between them, have been snatched from desolation by the power the service of the hors© has given to man. From remotest ages until now the liorse has been the vehicle of victory. Alexander, Hannibal, Csesar, Columbus, Wellington, Napoleon—each one of them rode on a horse. Without his horse not one could have carved out his career. For power to conquer, for ability to retreat with fife preserved and the chance to fight, another day, the horse has always been the means to man’s great end; and even now, in th© motor age, the liorse will take its rider where tyres and petrol fail. Through tho long, long years man and his faithful steed have come together. Down the sounding corridors of time we hear the roar of his thundering hoofs and catch the low whinny of this friend who never fails. And' must these horses die, then?