The Washington times. [volume] (Washington [D.C.]) 1902-1939, 1921-11-27
DISARMAMENT A
SCRAP Of PAPER,
SAYS 6. B. SHAW
Continued from First Page.)

10 De USED, That they were no
longer living In 1870, they were
quite unprepared to take advan-
tage of the great gap 1t made in
our line and advanced only about
five miles.
And yet the Germans are far
more capable Of military prepare
ton than any other nation in the
world, because. as the traditions
Of their more recent serfdom are
still upon them, they are better
organized and better disciplined.
'If They Had Known"
The British. though they made
as great mess Of the new tanks
as the Germans did Of new gas,
were apparently better prepared:
but even their preparations will not
bear close scrutiny. Thanks to
Lord Haldane their military force.
which was all they had bargained
for by land, was transported to
Belgium and delivered. as promised
seven years before. without a cas-
ualty.
Mr.. Winston Churchill was able
to show that the navy went into
the war with five years accumula-
ton of munitions and stores. Lord
French had been studying the
terrain on which he was to fight
for years.
But we i'm England now know, on
authority Of our naval command
ers, that SO many ships were un-
manned and under repair for UNI
seawthOriness I'm 1914 that II the
German fleet had dared to attack
at once we should have been
Trafalgared, Just as the Germans
could have got through us ut the
first battle Of Ypres III they had
only known"
Then consider the French. They
can hardly plead that they were
taken by surprise after agitating
all Europe by their extension OF
military service to three years.
Deceived Each Other.
Nobody who before the war
passed any time in Toul and there
abouts as l did, could doubt for a
moment that the French army
was being drilled on the assump-
ton that war might come at any
moment. But Joffre himself ad-
mitted, in the face of the patriotic
French public. that the rout from
Maubeuge to Compiegne before Won
Kluck was disgraceGll and mex
cusable. 1t must have meant that
there had been no real prepare
ton. no plan. no brains.
And yet these three powers, In
their moral dread of one another.
were each persuaded that the other
had it's war material up to date. its
plan of conquest thought out to
the final victorious march through
the streets of the enemy's capital,
and it's men ready for mobilization
in overwhelming force and at full
war strength for The Day.
How Shaw Would DO.
/ do not exaggerate more than
is necessary in dealing with the
thickness of some of the heads
into which ! have to drive the
truth when i say that II nobody
I'm Europe had ever given ten min
utes' consideration to the strategy
Of the war before it began, there
would not have been twOpennOrth
of difference i'm the sequel.
The first precept that Is dinned
into a military student is that he
must always act on the assumption
that his enemy is fully prepared. Ii
ever / take to the military life l
shall proceed on the precisely oppo-
site assumption; and, unless the OPP
posing commander is equally intellt-
gent and original. / shall sweep all
before me, like Caesar and Alexan-
III,
guished military authority how far
the strategy of the late war was
ahead of the actual operation. He
the front line"
Generals Know Better.
The public idolizes a general al.
most as wildly as it idolizes a detec-
tive: but the generals themselves
know better. Every general be-
lieves that the war in which he COM
mands will be exactly like the war
in which he fought as a young COM
pany officer from thirty to fifty
years before.
In 1914 the British commanders
believed that the war in Flanders
war; and the German general staff
thought it would be like the Franco
Prussian war. The French gen.
erals, having been beaten last time.
did not think at all, with very sim
liar results. They were all sure that
tanks were no use and that cavalry
was indispensable. They all aimed
at enveloping the other fellow. and
at avoiding being enveloped by him.
And nothing came of their inticipa-
tons.
America to Rescue.
They drove their enemies head
long before them, and were present
ly driven headlong before their enc.
mics. They very nearly won and
very nearly lost over and over
again; and they would have been
fighting to this day IL America and
the blockade had not forced the Ger
mans to capitulate Immediately
after they had all but driven the
fifth army into the sea and fright
ened the British government into de
claring conscriptiOn I'm Ireland and
madIy tearing all the remaining
plOwmen from their burrows, after
which Lord Haig resumed the often.
sive as VIGOROUSLY rs II the British