500.000 CATS

Dominion, Volume 12, Issue 5, 1 October 1919, Page 2

500.000 CATS

SINGULAR GOVERNMENT ' /" CONTRACT.' The story of how iiOO.OOO British, cats did;- their bit towards .saving ''the world whilst serving in the trenches has been "rc-leasecl" fo ( r general circulation, and is told lin "John o' London's Weekly." ''These cats, which were gathered fromthe highways .and byways of London, were used to detect gas' in the tronchc-?. They were obtained through an advertisement which appeared in the London .papers asking for 'common cats-any imnjber,' to 'be delivered to 'Charles Harris's bird-store, Betlmal Green-Boad.'

"People! who read the advertisement may have, thought 't Btrnngo for a birdstore. to 1)0 advertising for cats in any 'number; but whatever their private opinions, the cats were -forthcoming. Mr. Harris, of Bpthnal Green Koad, rapidly began acquiring a eollection/of homoless tabbies and tommies such a'B old London perhaps never before liad seen gathered i n.oiio place. Any thing 'that wore ful and an inquiring expression of countenance was acceptable to Mr. Harris.

•'Tor he was let into par? of tho socret. He had an. army contract for cats. Just plain cats I But even Mr./ Harris did not know what the ciits were wanted for. No Englishman, much less n birdnian of Bethnol Green, stops to inquiro the reason why when Government speaks. to do or die. ; ' ."As it was, every day . or .so a largo army truck drew up before Mr. Harris's place of business, and sundry very lively bags of merchandise- were transferred from his store to tilt interior of tho ■truck, .with many muffled protests from, the tags. "The cats wont from Bethnal Green lioad direct to the British lines on' thi> Western front, via Boulogne and Amiens. They wore there distributed up and down the British lines. As a sideline of their military service, the lady and',gentlemen volunteers in fur. kept down the rot population remarkably. . ' -