The Birmingham age-herald., 1913-05-25
dogs Of War" That Saved Italian ARMY

T ONDON, May 24.-(Special) )-That
British fortress already famous for
- it's strength, the Rock of Gibraltar,
is about to be made stronger still by
means of dogs trained to act as sentries.
Dogs of war; which, it seems, were
lot more than figure of speech even when
Shakespeare coined the famous phrase
about letting them Slip have played an
important part In recent military cam
paigns, and the British admiralty is mere
ly following the lead of the British war
office, as well as of all the great Euro
pean powers, in deciding to employ dogs
as sentinels at Gibraltar
The animals to be used. mixed breed
OF Airedales, are to be supplied by
Maj. f. Fl. Richardson, retired British
officer, who fought with the Bulgarians
in 1885, and later was instructor to Alb
dul Hamid's bodyguard in Corstantinopie.
and who already is well known as a
trainer of police dogs which ne has sup
piled to nearly every country on earth,
well as to a lot Of crowned heads.
A lot has been written, of course, about
these dogs of peace" one of which is,
or was until recently, an important men,
ber of the police force of Spokane, Wash,
and 25 more Of which are the terror of
evil doers as far at the other end of ere
alton as the Malay states; but of the
dogs of war; which receive their train
ing from Major Richardson and their
accomplishments in actual battle. little
or nothing has yet found Its way into
print despite the fact that the services
performed by Richardson's dogs in the
Manchurian and Moroccan campaigns
brought their trainer decorations from
both the Car OF Russia and the King of
Spain, and that, in the recent Turco-
Italian war the alertness Of one of these
canine sentries saved the Italian army
from a surprise night attack and was
responsible for the engagement OF be-
tween 5000 and 1000 men on terms Of equal
ity.
Recently the major made mention of
the part which dogs supplied by him had
played In the Tripoli campaign, as well
as in the recent punitive expedition sent
by the Indian government against the
warlike Abors, a tribe Of savages who
had murdered couple of English officers
and the details OF these performances
seemed likely to prove interesting that
the writer recently sought out the major
at his home at Harrow on-the-hill, close
to the famous school, which he calls
Grove End" and after scrupulously
oheying several notice boards which bid
to Beware of the Bloodhounds," !"
asked him if it were true that the admi-
ralty had ordered dogs from him for use
at Glib
Richardson, who is a tall. gaunt man,
aged SO. with tiny mustache, carefully
waxed at the ends and who when seen
by the writer was attired in riding cos
tune. has been, it proves. training dogs
for use In war for close on 20 years He
was led to begin doing so. he confesses
quite candidly, by accidentally discov-
ering that Germany-which row is in
position to put over 5000 animals into the
field and has carefully worked out
scheme for mobolizing them-was buying
up dogs in Scotland for the purpose The
Fatherland. in its turn, it seems had
come to realize the value OF dogs in war
through American experience in the civil
war. the animals which fought" for the
north and south apparently having done
yeoman service. though none of them
had been specially trained for war.
1T was in 1894 1895" said Richard
son, as we talked in his office, a room
whose walls are hidden behind photo
graphs of dogs of war and peace, too.
and decorated with the majors many
trophies, that ! was shooting over
friends estate in Strathodel, near Slair-
gowie. when | discovered that a German
was In the neighborhood, buying sheep
dogs from the shepherds and on making
Inquiries learned that he was an agent OF
the German government which now, by
the way. has ceased to rely OF this corn-
try for its supply Of dogs. but uses ami
mails born under the Double Eagle, which