The New York herald. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1840-1920, 1874-05-10
Ensl.nd's military Dilsmm..

From a paper recently read by Colonel
Chesney at Woolwich, England, on military
organization, it appears that one of the sub
jects attracting fair share of attention from
the English mind is the dilemma in which the
growth of continental armies Las placed the
pensive lion Of England. Shall England, in
all conditions and oil circumstances, pursue
peace policy, or shall she undertake to be
military Power? In the way of her aspirations
to be 9 military Power stand obstacles scarcely
surmountable; for the days when '.great men
won great battles with small armies are gone
by and England can never have any but
small army. As war must be waged in future
on the Continent of Europe armies in battle
would hold reserve for emergencies equal to
the whole force Of the British Army. Ger
many or Russia could fight two or three
battles on the same day, with two hum
bred and fifty thousand men in line of
battle on each field; but England, straining
every nerve, cannot put into the field more
than sixty thousand men. Outnumbered thus,
it must seem desperate for England to pre-
tend to be q military Power; and why should
she, then, in the endeavor to keep up an or
ganization chat cannot have effect in practical
events, spend the present cost Of her army?
Shall she, then, save this money and stand
up always for peace? She is pugnacious
old lady, and has defects of temper that unfit
her for the role and she has an aristocracy
with military tastes and under some obliga-
ton to keep themselves in military condition,
whose policy and whose pride at once revolt
against the suggestion. What then, shall be
done? Colonel Chesney proposes plan by
which to avoid at once the peace necessity, as
well as the consequences Of England's inferior
numbers in military array. His PROPOSE
ton is to make little army SO good
as to enable it to whip all the big
armies. To make On army such as our
raiding cavalry was during the war-a mounted
force with artillery that shall be able to
move rapidly from point to point and
the men of which shall also be trained to
fight as infantry. He believes such troops
could whip any largo army organized on
present principles; but he does not attach
sufficient weight to the fact that other nations
as we'll as England could organize such o
force. It does not seem to us that this is the
way Of England's escape from the military
dilemma; but that the true escape is by O
policy of alliances. England's sixty thousand
added to the armies of France and Belgium
would stay the tide of German advances at
any designated point. There was not battle
fought in the Franco-G German war that could
not have been decided in favor of the French
by twenty thousand English infantry on their
flank. Twenty thousand Englishmen would
have gone through the German lines around
Paris any time in January, 1871. One must
not lose sight in such problem of the
splendid quality of the British troops, and
this would give a morale to their allies worth
even more than their numbers. The policy
Of alliances as solution of the present prob
lem of European politicians was perceived by
Louis Napoleon and Palmerston before the
war came 1T is strange if England does not
see it with all the light the war has thrown
upon the subject