THE EXPERTS IN WAR.

Alexandra Herald and Central Otago Gazette, Issue 357, 12 March 1903, Page 6

THE EXPERTS IN WAR.

rl*te* t* &■▼•!•» OrlsrtnaHiy. " The truth ia th*t military mem in England ead not show themselves ©ae I whit more Competent to estimate the military problem* of the Boer war than civihana. They relied, like civilians, on tradition, and laughed at the Idea that any such changes had taken place in the art of war as were predicted by theariate, who declared, among other things, that offensive warfare was much more difficult than formerly, says Jean de Bloch, in National Review. The cause of military blindness is in no way obscure. Military training ia itself antagonistic to original thought. It is no wonder, therefore, that nowadays when rifles and artillery are a hundred times more powerful than before, when armies are fire to ten times larger, and when railways have changed the whole art of war, that we find the system of instruction differing very little from that employed in the days of Napoleon, or, for the matter of that, in the days of Oustarus Adolphus. Yet even among military men themselves the more enlightened feel as many doubts ss Marshal 6axe. That the methods to bo adopted in the future wars are a matter of grave doubt has been declared bjr writers as eminent as von Rhone, Janson, Muller, Pellet-Narbonne and Skugarewsky. It is expressed excellently in the words of Gen. Luzeux: "Let the instructors first agree among themselves." Nor can soldiers nowadays claim that experience has given them a right to dictste to civilians. Nine out of ten "experienced" soldiers have at most shot or hunted savsges, and the majority have seen no fighting at all. ___,