El Paso daily herald. (El Paso, Tex.) 1881-1901, 1899-11-16
EN6LAND'S poor ARMY OFFICERS
"They Don't Know How To Lead
Their Troops Against Strong
Enemy"

l"Ihey Don I knOW HOW 10 LedO
Their Troops Against Strong
Enemy"
Ignorance of campaign service and
negligence in accommodating were the
English in their previous encounters
with the Beers. An English mejor
| with whom l conversed upon the pre-
sent war said to me: SIT will be ended,
no doubt, tOour advantage, because our
| forces are vastly superior to those OF
the Beers, but it will cost US enormous
| losses, for the reason that our generals
knowslittle or nothing of war, and our
officers don't know how to lead their
| troops against well-armed enemy"
I asked him if he did not think that
| the suppression of the pur chase of COM
missions, the result of which is be-
ginning to be seen in the high ranks
had not produced some good effects up
on the efficiency of the corps of officers.
E'Not at ALL" he said. THE efficien-
cy of our officers would be superior if
in our army the system of fsvoritism
played q smaller part. 1t is not merit,
it is favoritism, which, in most cases,
brings about the appointment OF q man
to some high command. Our young
officers enter the army without having
the slightest idea of military service.
IL Gu0y 6uOulu Uc o0ub Out yuSG uoW III q
campaign against the Beers they would
no doubt conduct themselves bravely,
but they would not know when to turn
back or what to do with their men,"
After witnessing the recent Englis-
manOeuvers, myself got the same i'm
preston. The officers of every grade
have a careless attitude; the orders are
| slack. and but little Importance is at
tached to their execution, and that ia
Snr ath In xuh I m
several occasions. The officers take no
account OF the nature of the ground
upon which they vancouver, and each
movements of the English infantry,
which always fires volleys and never
seeks shelter, brings one back to the
time of the battle of Waterloo, the
only battle probably, that these of
tics.
An English military writer has
pointed out in his work upon the Brit
ish army the dislike of studying the
history of wars which exists among the
officers Outside .Of their campaigns
against the Afridis and Soudanais,
they have had no chance to gain any
Their does the training of the soldiers
present an opportunity to acquire q
knowledge of tactics. The English
officer is careful to put aside every
thing that is military, except during
the hours of exercise, and inasmuch as
he confines his studies to few of the
old battles, one need not be surprised
that, even on q manoeuvering ground.
he plays q poor part from the view
point of q trained soldier. In word,
these gentlemen simply play soldiers.
They have an air of Indifference dur
ing the hours of service and exercise,
and show clearly that they don the
uniform simply to get the title of OFF,
Ger and because it is the custom among
the sons Of rich families.
No doubt in their uniforms they are
brave. An English officer said to me
one day that he considered 1t incom-
patible with his dignity to kneel down
or to PROSTATE himself before the fire
of an enemy. He thought that such
an attitude might set bad example to
the others, because it might be taken
as sign OF fear. The heavy losses
among the officers in the campaigns
against the Beers, and even the defeats
in the war of 1881 against the Trans
vaal, were the result of a laud able
courage, but they displayed the utter
military incspacity of their leaders.
The English have great hopes of the
efficiency of their cavalry in their
present campaign against the Beers, |
and, from what have seen of the Eng |
that their cavalry is the only arm
which comes up to modern military in
and which surpasses, per-
haps, the cavalry of certain European
The cavalry officers also
present q favorable impressions; but
this does not mean that they have any
more military. knowledge than their
comrades in the infantry and the art
illery.
Naturally there are generals and
other superior officers who can see the
defects of the English military sys-
tenn. For instance, Sir r. Butler,
" no is to be the commander in chief in
The campaign of the Transvasl, knows
very well that against the Beers he
will have to adopt new tactics. After
MS inspection of the troops destined I
or the Transvssl, made some little ,
lime ago at Aldershot, he said: 'sDon't
tick with too much zeal to your old
labits." And he reapprosched the :
infantry officers for taking too much ,
ARE in forming and preserving pretty
ines, and for not taking sufficiently
nto account the formation and nature
# the ground. But L believe that
hese late lessons will have no good
fleet upon the ohicers.-Frankfor
Gazette.
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