The record-union., 1899-05-07
THE FRENCH OFFICERS.
One Feature That Make the French
Army EormidahI BILE.

One Of the features which make the
French Army corps so terrible a wea-
pom OF attack, when properly handled,
is the large number of n-commission-
ed officers who have won minor commits
slons, such as sous-lieutenant and cap
tain, and if their education is faulty
they more than atone for it by superb
courage. They hope to win their pro-
motion by the sword and not by the
DOOR, 1t is this very class of whom
Won Moltke said, in 1870, that while
they possess no other instruction than
that of the bad primary French in
struction, and give evidence of gross
ignorance, it was precisely these off,
GERS who, for the greater part, strove
on the battlefields of France to wash
out, at the cost of their blood, faults
Tor which they We're in no way respon-
slble." AS a class, the French offi
GERS are equal to any officers on the
continent, up to a certain point.
l have already alluded to the adj
vanced age of the French military
chiefs, which makes it impossible for
them to cope with hardship and ia
tigue. The officers between % and 80
are at their very best. and any young
man who has thoroughly understood the
teaching at ST. Cyr might mount
horse and lead an army corps, but the
absurd reverence for age makes this
an 1mpCSSibility. In our own day we
have seen the magnificent clear-headed-
ness 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 com ng General must be between the
thirties and forties. The statement
that Frances commanding Generals
are between So and 65 is almost a con-
fession of coming defeat.
Another fault lies in the tendency of
the French officer stationed in Paris to
grow fat. The Eng ish officer never has
this ridiculous leaning toward embon-
point, but if one were to watch a batch
of officers enter the Cercle Militafre-I
mnow speaking of those in the forties
and fifties-one might easily mistake
them for Aldermen in uniform This
argues lack of exercise and would au-
CUR badly for the d. i'll CT the troops WEI e
1t not that in France, as in England
the bulk of this work depends upon tbs
non-commissioned officers Luckily
for France, her young army officers 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 ST. Cyr in
1897 must result in an improvement in
the morale of the French commanders
of the future. The tyranny of math-
emat1cs is abolished and every effort
is to be made to instill into the minds
OF the students that war is not so much
science as an art, which can be best
achieved by good sense and inspiration
General Maillard, one of the Profess
| sors Of Tactics at the Ecole Superieure
de Guerre, says very wisely: 'Under the
pretext that the progress of science and
industry Will be used in the coming
fight between the nations, it is pro-
claimed that the conducting of war
must be scientific, and that it will de-
mand high mathematical knowledge.
Nothing is more opposed to the spirit of
war. The Rule of Three alone up to
the present, has suffced, and will suf-
flee, for all problems depending on cali
culation, but to conduct a war means
that the chiefs must have high natural
qualities, protest. onal knowledge
which must be constantly advancing.
a strong, cultured intelligence, but,
above all, the spirit of reflection, of cal
culation-in word, the philosophical
spirit. New Century Review.