VON MOLTKE ON THE FRENCH ARMY.

Auckland Star, Volume I, Issue 265, 15 November 1870, Page 2

YON MOLTKE ON THE FRENCH ARMY.

An interesting letter appears in the Salut Public of Lyons relative to the instruction which Prussian and French officers are respectively obliged to possess. The writer says : —" M'Mahon is supposed to have adopted tactics which are not new—namely to act above all with his artillery, said to be formidable, and, to spare his men as much as possible. A'apoleon I, of whohl General de Moltke is only the pupil, never proceeded otherwise. He it Was who 'fiivst imagined the great concentration of troops by rapid marches. M. de Moltke, his greatest admirer, has • always manifested the greatest contempt for our strategy. I remember having heard quoted some of his very words addressed to a .trench officer on a mission to Berlin—' Do not talk to me of your military education in Africa if you never been there, so much the better; when you become a general you will be glad of it. The war you have been carrying on for forty years against the Arabs is a guerillerie of an inferior order. Never any skilful marches, no feints, no countermarches, rarely any surprises. With that school you will do nothing more than form other schools like it. . The first great war will demonstrate your inefficiency, and were . not in the presence or a nian of your i. it, sir, I should not hesitate to laugh at yu.l' ignorance of the trade to which you devote yourselves. Amongst you —do not deny it—a pioneer is almost a ridiculous person; and in general the working man is one of mean intelligence* Here, on the contrary, the most conscientious studies are in the order of the day, and the lowest captain knows as much as your staff officers who are so brilliant in the ball-room. Have you even a superficial smattering of the elements of the military art on leaving your special schools ? I am 'tempted to doubt it. Come now,' continued General do Moltke, taking the other by the hand, ' I wager that you do nob know what is the most valuable piece of furniture for the chamber of an officer in garrison. Come with me.' So, saying, the old Prussian led his interlocutor Into a small bed-chamber suited to a sub-lieutenant; a small bed without curtains, three straw chairs, shelves of books from the floor to the roof, and in the middle of the room a black wooden board on an easel; the ground strewed with morsels of chalk. 'It is with this that we beat our adversaries every morning,' murmured the old tactician, who was destined to give afterwards so severe a lesson to General Froissard, the professor of the Prince Imperial. ' And for drawing here is all we want,' and M. de Moltke exhibited some geographical maps. What a singular conversation, when one thinks that it. took place in March, 1870, for I copy it literally from a letter dated the 21st of that month. What may we not have to say about the lessons to be derived from it? We shall profit by them at a later period."