Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1914-10-18
TOMMY atkins FIT,
SAYS CONAN DOYLE
British Soldier Proving Fight
ing Efficiency, Declares
English Writer.
FLAYS GERMAN CRITICS
WHO SAW NO GOOD IN HIM
No Deterioration in Mettle That
Won Battles in Other Days-De-
probation of Teutonic Army.


probation of Teutonic Army.
BY SIR ARTHUR CONAN DOYLE.
Special Correspondence to The Star and New
York Times.
LONDON, October 10-Early last
year. in the course of some comments
which i made upon the sighting re-
marks about our army by Gen. Won
Bernhardi 1 observed:
1T may be noted that Gen. Won Bern
hardi has a poor opinion of our troops.
This need not trouble US We are what
we are and words will not alter it.
From very early days our soldiers
have left their mark upon continental
warfare, and we have no reason to
think that we have declined from the
manhood of our foTefathers.''
Since then he has returned to the
attack. With that curious power of
coming. after deep study, to the alb
solutely Numerically wrong conclu-
sion which the German expert. political
or military. appears to possess, he says
in his War Of Today:
The English army, trained more for
mere purposes of show than for mod
,ern war; adding in the same sentence
sheer at our inferior colonial levies-"
Chance to Revise Views.
He will have an opportunity of re-
considering his views presently upon
the fighting value of our oversee
troops. Surely. so far as cur own are
concerned, he must already be making
some interesting notes for his next
edition, or. rather, for the learned vol
ume upon Germany and the Last
War which will no doubt come from
his pen.
He is man to whom We might we'll
raise a statue, for l am convinced that
this frank confession of German pol
icy has been worth at least an army
corps to this country. We may address
to him John Davidson's lines to his
enemy:
Unwilling friend. let not your spite
abate.
Spur us with scorn and strengthen us
with hate
There is another German gentleman
who must be thinking rather furiously.
He is a certain Col. Gadke, who appear
ed officially at Aldershot some years
ago. was hospitality entertained. being
shown all that he desired to see, and
on his return to Berlin published
most deprecatory description of our
forces. He found no good thing IN
them.
i have some recollection that Gen
FRENCH alluded, in a public speech, to
this critics remarks. and expressed
modest hope that he and his men would
some day have the opportunity OF
showing how far they We're deserved
Well, he has had his opportunity, and
Col Gadke, like SO many other Ger
mans, seems to have made a miscalcu-
lation-
Fools Made of Brave Men.
An army which has preserved the
absurd parade schritt, an exercise
which is painful to the bystander, as
he feels that it is making fools of
brave men, must have tendency to
throw back to earlier types. These
Germans have been trained in peace
and upon the theory of books. In all
that vast host there is hardly a man
who has stood at the wrong end of a
loaded gun.
They live on traditions of close
formations. vast cavalry charges and
other things which will not fit into
modern warfare. Braver men do not
exist. but it is the bravery of men who
have been taught to lean upon each
other, and not the cold self contained.
resourceful bravery of the man who
has learned to fight for his own hand.
The British have had the teachings
of the two recent campaigns fought
with modern weapons, that of the
Tirah and of South Africa. Now that
the reserves have Joined the colors
there are few regiments which have
not a fair sprinkling of veterans from
these wars in their ranks. The Pathan
and the Boer have been their instruc-
tors in something more practical than
those imperial grand maneuvers. where
the all-highest played with his puppets
in such a fashion that one of his gen.
erals remarked that the chief practical
difficulty of campaign So conducted
would be the disposal of the dead.
The fact is that the German army.
with all it's great traditions, had been
petrifying for many years back. They
Africa 1t was not for want of having
il expounded to them, for their mill
tary attache-"him with the spatch
cock ON is 'elmet.' as l heard him
nothing of what occurred, as is evident
from their official history of the war.
And yet they missed 1t, and with all
those ideas of individual efficiency and
elastic independent information. which
are the essence of modern soldering
No British Deterioration.
II is very strange thing how Ger
man critics have taken for granted that
the British army had deteriorated
while the opinion of all those who were
in close touch with it as that ii was
never SO good. Even some of the
French experts made the same mistake,
and Gen. Bonnat counseled his country
men not to rely upon it, since sit would
take refuge amid it's islands at the
first reverse"
One would think that the causes
which make for its predominance were
obvious. Apart from any questions of
national spirit or energy, there is the
all-important fact that the men are
there OF their own free william ad-
vantage which / trust that we shall
never be compelled to surrender Again.
the men are of longer service in every
arm. and they have far more oppor-
tunities of actual fighting than come
to any other force.
Finally, they are divided into regi-
ments with centuries of military glory
streaming from their banners, which
carry on a mighty tradition. The very
words-the guards" the rifles" the
'Connaught Rangers" the 'bufrs.' the
Scots Greys," the "Gordons"-sound
like bugle calls. How could an army
be anything but dangerous which ha d
such units in its line of battle?
AUSTRIA-HUNGARY CALLS