The times., 1899-01-15
THE FRENCH OFFICERS.
One of the Features Tint Make the
French Army Formidable.

u rom tEe New century ReNlcW.J
One of the features which make the
French army corps so terrible a weapon
Of attack. when properly handled, is the
large number of noncommissioned officers
who have won minor commissions, such as
souslieutenant and captain. and if their
education is faulty they more than atone
for it by superb courage. They hope to
win their promotion by the sword and not
by the book. It is this very class of whom
Won Moitke said in 1870, that while they
possess no other instruction than that of
the bad primary French instruction, and
give evidence OF gross ignorance, il was
precisely these officers who, for the great
er part. strove on the battlefieids OF
France to wash out at the cost OF their
blood, faults for which they were in no
way responsible" As class the French
officers are equal TO any officers on the
Continent, up 10 a certain point.
| have already alluded TO the advanced
age Of the French military chiefs which
makes it impossible for them to cope with
hardship and fatigue. The officers between
twenty-eight and fifty are at their very
best, and any young man who has thor
oughiy understood the teaching at St Cyr
might mount horse and lead an army
corps, but the absurd reverence for age
makes this an impossibility. In our own
day we have seen the magnificent clear
medicines OF youth in three departments
Kitchener in war. Harmsworth in Jour-
nalism and Lasker in chess. all of whom
seem to emphasize the great lesson that
the coming general must be between the
thirties and forties. The statement that
Frances commanding generals are be-
tween hfty-eight and sixty-five is almost
confession of coming defeat
Another fault lies In the tendency. or
GROW fat The English officer never has
thls ridiculous leaning toward embonpoipt.
put II one were to watch Il batch of officers
enter the Cercle Militaire-I am NOV
speaking OF those in the forties and Hf
tes-one might easily mistake them for
aldermen IN uniform. This argues lact,
Vi exercise. and would augur badly for the
drlil of the troops We're il not that in
france. as in England, the bulk OF this
work depends upon the non n-commissjorah
oihcers. Luckily for France her Young
army othcers are in the pink OF condition
ready for any emergency and equal to
any demands on their physical and mental
systems. The new RULES laid down at
81 Cyr in 1897 must result in an improve
nent IN the morale of the French com
manders of the future The tyranny Of
mathematics is abolished and every
enort rs TO be made to instil into the
minds OF the students that war is not so
much science as an art. which can ba
best achieved by good sense and inspira-
tion.
General Millard. one of the professors
VI tactics at the Ecole Superieure de
Guerre. says very wisely: Under the r,re
text that the progress of science and in
dustry will be used in the coming fight
between the nations, it is proclaimed that
the conducting of war must be scientiG,
ana that 1t will demand high mathe-
| maticai knowledge. Nothing is more
! opposed to the spirit CT war. The rule OF
! three alone. up TO the present, has suf-
| need, and will suffice, for all problems
| depending on calculation. but to conduct
/ a war means that the chiefs must have
! nigh natural qualities, n professional
knowledge which must be constantly ad-
Vahclng, a strong, cultured intelligence.
4 but, above all. the spirit of reflection. of
caiculation-in word, the philosophical
/ spirit