Mistreatment of horses letters

Letter from the secretary of the New Zealand Society for the Protection of Women and Children and Prevention of Cruelty to Animals to the Minister of Defence enclosing letters the Society had received regarding the mistreatment of the horses left behind in Egypt. The second letter is a response from the Minister of Defence to a letter on the same subject from the Society of Prevention of Cruelty to Animals in Auckland.

New Zealanders at home and at the front appear to have accepted the reasons the horses couldn’t be returned from Egypt. But they expressed concern when they learnt that they might be sold locally and mistreated.

After men bought home stories of such mistreatment in 1919, individuals, and organisations such as the New Zealand Society for the Protection of Women and Children and Prevention of Cruelty to Animals, asked the government for an explanation. The official response that fit horses had gone to the Imperial Remount Depot failed to mention that the Depot had found itself with far too many horses, or that the New Zealand authorities had not objected to its proposal to sell horses locally.