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Show 4 vrf -f mr 7 rft England Must Dispose Dis-pose of More Than Haifa Million Horses, Many of Which Bear Wounds Received in Battle. Qs 7 BY LLOYD ALLEN Special Staff Correspondent. fCopyriKtit Western Newspaper Union) L LONDON. Over half a million four-legged heroes of the war. f many of them "gold stripe" horses, are being given the only kind of honorable discharge dis-charge a horse can receive: sold to English and other civilians to fill the pressing need In this country's transport trans-port system. We thought, in America where thousands thou-sands of these horses came from, that the British army horse led as precarious pre-carious an existence as the machine gunners in the first line of trenches. During those first months of war, when British army agents were buying horses In the United States, there were many who honestly believed the American Amer-ican steeds would last about one week in that inferno of shell fire. You should see the American horses now being brought to England from France if you ever believed the life of a horse at the front was a hundred-to-one shot that death would come In the form of a Huu shell. "By the hundred thousand these sleek, well kept, well fed quadrupeds are being auctioned off to eager buyers. Many were in France four years: many were wounded in action, but were carefully cared for by the army veteiinaries and bear today the honest cars -of battle as the memento of the days when they helped win civilization's civiliza-tion's war. One of the first lots sold went under un-der the hammer at Ware's Edgeware road repository, about the middle of December. "Here's a horse that deserves the Victoria Cross" the auctioneer shouted when the first horse, a black gelding, was trotted out. "He's got two wounds to his credit and is still going strong' The gelding was sold for about $150 American money. Equine Losses Announced. Major General Sir W. H. Birkbeck. director of remounts in the British army, has just announced the losses among the British war horses during the entire period of the war. "During the last four months of 1914," General Ilirkbeck declared, "the armies in France lost 14 per cent of their horses, or about 3 per cent a month. That period Included the re-treat re-treat from Mons, the first battle of the Marne, and the first battle of Ypres. "In the following year the losses were fourteen and a half per cent for the whole twelve months. In. 1017 the losses rose to 2S per cent, 10 per cent of which took place during the last three months of the year, the balance of the losses being chiefly owing to the heavy fighting at VI my Ridge, Tasschendale, and the beginning of night bombing." During the last year of war comparatively com-paratively few horses were lost : two and a half per cent being the official estimate. Among the British commercial commer-cial firms something like 20 per cent of the horsesiie always either sick or resting, as 'in annual average, while the ollicial British army reports reveal re-veal the fact that in France, due to the careful attention of the veterin-arles, veterin-arles, the usual average was a bit more than twelve per cent. Whether America can profitably follow fol-low the accepted British system of demobilizing army horses Is a grave question. With the present shortage In ships and the pressing needs of European Eu-ropean peoples for foodstuffs, together with the mighty job of transporting General Pershing's army home, it is possible that some horses must needs be either left behind or sacrificed, to add somewhat to the already staggering stagger-ing debt, of war. The British people have been told that in all probability some thousands of horses and mules in far-away Egypt will have to be disposed of In one of throe ways: repatriation, destruction, or sale. Oppose Shooting of Animals. There Is a strong sentiment against shooting the faithful animals. And there are a number of practical obstacles ob-stacles to such a plan. The carcasses of !?2.".000.000 worth or horseflesh cannot can-not be dispos-cd of simply by sighing an army order ever, though Egypt does afford wide wastes of uninhabited rfC- PI in v' ' iVy p- i&sz-O' JWQiU -:a ( v:, Amrcssi hordes ai detrrobiYzaltosi jiatfortear L ondon. jr. t If !rM$2?l wtk 3 deserts and plenty of vultures. Fundamentally, Funda-mentally, liowever, it Is the Briton's sincere love for the horse that forbids adopting any ruthless expedient in reducing the Egyptian forces to a peace time footing. General Allenby, the British commander com-mander In the Near East, has cabled that every effort will be made to place all surplus horses in the hands of natives na-tives who will "treat the animals well and infinitely better than the peoples of many European nations." Naturally the horses will be returned to inuUsry at a slower rate than they were mobilized. When Sir J. Cowans -came to the war office shortly after the British declared de-clared war en Germany, he had to obtain 135,000 horses in 14 days. His methods were successful. The horses were supplied by the business people of England and included the best of Leicestershire. The Kitchener divisions, divi-sions, however, demanded the services of at least 700.000 horses. Then it was that the British horse buyer made his appearance in force In the markets of America. At the same time buyers were busy in Spain, Argentina, Ar-gentina, China, Australia, Tunis, Algiers, Al-giers, and Somaliland. Confronting the authorities are a number of grave problems just now. First of all there Is an urgent need of disposing nf all surplus army stock with the least possible delay. But there are too many horses. Only seventeen sev-enteen per cent of nil army stock actually ac-tually came firm England. Manifestly It Is Impossible to return one hundred per cent to England and thereby glut the market and demoralize the present schedule of prices. So even though ! the homos arc literally eating their j heads off at great cost to the government govern-ment the number of sales must be regulated reg-ulated to meet the actual demand. Also, the horse sales must be held In all sections of t lie country, and the quantities offered must conform to the needs of each community. ; Sell 25.000 a Month. ' Following (his system as closely as they can, the army men hope to dis-j dis-j pose of some -5.000 horses a month. No animal more than twelve years old will be offered. These steeds will go into a surplus that must be disposed dis-posed of in Belgium Bel-gium and Northern France . where the peasants are trying to repair war dam- - ages and get back to a peace footing, and where the cities cit-ies are faced with the problem of settling set-tling back into .the pursuits of peace. There is a wids variety of stock for the civilian . buyer to choose from, varying from the heavy Tercher-ons Tercher-ons to the light type useful for the ordinary wagon and including sad dle horses and driving stock. In the first lots that have just been sold the Irish horses were prominent in breeding and hardness but were rather excelled in size by the Trans-Atlantic Trans-Atlantic classes graded with them. Doubtless many of the American horses will be bought here for hunters. Army men speak highly of the American mule. On the battlefield the mule made good. But among the British Brit-ish horse owners there is a grave distrust dis-trust of this imported luxury. As a matter of fact the mule is the chief problem hi this side of demobilization. demobil-ization. Nobody wants him for peace work. There are thousands of them in the army,' trained to harness or saddle. Yet even the most optimistic army person per-son here is wondering how on earth the government is going to enthuse the civilian buyer or, the subject. May Use Same as Food. While the war office is devoting a lot of thought to getting rid of surplus horses, the food controller, ncting independently, in-dependently, has possibly suggested a kind of remedy horseflesh has just been put on the list of food stuffs the price of which is controlled by government gov-ernment order. "Owing to the increased demand for horseflesh for human consumption, it has been found necessary to control the prices both to retailers and consumers,", consum-ers,", the official order reads. The prices fixed are interesting. The householder buying at retail will have to pay no more than 31 cents a pound for the best cuts. The heart, liver and head meats cuts, known here as the offal cuts (no joke Intended), may be sold to retail trade at 16 cents a pound. Eating horseflesh is merely a feature feat-ure of the meat shortage Englau'd and all of Europe are now experiencing. Meat and butter are going to be- hard to get here for the next year or so. That one fact is the only point in the whole food problem on which the food ministry ollicials stand pat. Meat sellers may be able to dispose of some of the horses, over the counter in pound lots, hut what of the 10,000 friendless mules here awaiting sale? |