§ Mr. SMITHERSasked the Secretary of State for War whether he will give the particulars mentioned under the following headings for the financial year ended April, 1914, and for the present year; the number of horses and mules on the British establishment; the number of officers and other ranks, including, civilians, in the remount service; the number of animals dealt with by the remount service; and the cost of the remount service?
§ Sir L. WORTHINGTON-EVANS(pursuant to his reply) [OFFICIAL REPORT, 11th July, 1927; cols. 1765–6, Vol. 208], supplies the following statement:
The work of the Remount Department is not comparable with that performed in 1913–14, as it has taken over the Light Horse Breeding Scheme from the Board of Agriculture, and work on classification of the horse population performed by the Territorial Adjutants in 1913–14 but transferred to the Remounts Staff as from April, 1914. Subject to this observation, 2485W the following is the information asked for:
1913. 1927. (1) Horses and mules on British Establishment 28,849 19,603 (2) (a) Officers 34* 83 (b) Other ranks and civilians 264* 311† (3) Pay and allowances of personal under (2) £29,000 £86,000 * As from 1st April, 1914, the Establishment was increased to 118 officers and 270 subordinates, and the pay and allowances from £29,000 to £51,500. † Excluding a certain number of locally engaged employés in Egypt. As regards the number of horses dealt with in the two years, full statistics are not available, but in 1913 some 3,000 horses and mules were purchased but no horses were classified by the Remount Service for Army purposes. In 1927, owing to the fact that horses are available as the result of mechanisation and the Cavalry reductions, to meet other needs, only approximately 1,000 horses and mules are being purchased, but the normal requirements are approxmately 2,500, and, in addition, the Remount Service have to classify for Army purposes some 75,000 a year, in areas in which the horse population is estimated at 2,000,000.