DEFENCE NOTES.

Dominion, Volume 3, Issue 912, 3 September 1910, Page 13

DEFENCE NOTES.

[Edited By Eohelon.] v "YE COMPLEAT SOLDIER." CAN WE MANUFACTURE HIM? ; The interesting bull's-eye controversy which has been raging in this column for some time must, perforce, stand over for a week.' In the meantime a very interesting communication on the study of war from literature holds sway, this Saturday. It is as well to let the writer put his own.-^case.:— Bunyan's Muck-heap Raker. "Gyro" writes: Yβ compleat soldier —will we ever be'able to manufacture him? I think hot. .■'.Wβ have not the "popular" literature -which , will ever shape our national attitude towards' war correctly, and have not the scientific .literature which will make soldiers. And, as I think, we never will,have: AVe are a terrible example of Bunyan's muck-heap raker. We see the immediate and tho apparently tangible, but, as regards the- ultimate, wo, are aa blind as bats. Microscope .in hand, we bend down closely to observe the beetles in the gutter oil this side of the road, and, meanwhile, a whole troop of. elephants marches on the other unheeded and- unseen, ".' Yon can get an Englishman very much interested in a'cannon, but you could not got him to listen one, minute on any "theory of artillery."^/'And yet /what truly mar-' vellbus .things the', average Englishman —and" especially the ayerago Englishcolonial—will listen to—listen to and BELIEVE./ ■'■'■ /" ."•'- -.- ''"'■■.;. Guttering .candles.''..:''!':-,''."' ' WJhen Lord Kitchener came to Anstralia every reporter on' the great Australian daily press brushed up. his wits, and girded up his loins, and endeavoured to "say sonjothing." ~ These young gentlemen are probably a more intelligent lot than .the'.average run of"young gentlemen" or. they' would not be reporters. , , So w^hnt'.they/said is interesting. I have it'here beforo mo as 1 rrite%-tho .great, mass of'it,, crystallised" into one short' cabled Press Assocmtion. message:—'''Lord- • Kitbhen r ' er' s ■ scheme for ,tho defence of Australia ha'a yet been disclosed,; but it is , ■ believed that he will. recommeud the, expenditure of an enormous sum for the defence of the; Northern.Territory.!' v.Npw.Hvhat havo we here? Whyy just our. old friend the "Bulletin"—its'great influence filtering through a'hundred separate arid < seemirigly A independent channels..- •■ _We see!' just:. the, familiar "Bulletin of the' ■ Yellow Peril"—the "Bulletin", which,, if 'you examined it on the'-rack'in a medieval ' terturechamber could not disclose one fact bearing "on warfare as it is, because the- poor "Bulletin" -does not know ■whereof ..it:-prattles,; although, to .be sure, it does prattle more occasional wisdom on ; war ; than'.do the whole of. the other printing-presses of put.together.' "But.the "Bulletin".and the/whole Australian, press; like all our literature on war, sees,..iust the immediate and the tangible—the gun and tho fort—although, to be ■ sure, if the Yellow Peril were really minded to come to Australia, there :'is no particular rea-. son why they < sh6uld .not' avoid the North of "Australia .(supposing it were: bristling--.., with . .-cannon), and- come straight on to Sydney! Perhaps in Sassing this.sea of absurdities it may: o' no harrh ;to point."out -. that any. "Yellow Peril" expedition , to would require to' be accompanied by armoured/warships,'and a warlike trip of that 3ize wouldi mean .great cruising radius.' Yet..the Japanese during the last-four'years have been cutting down-everything-on their ships which would help cruising, and putting plain "battle stuff"—i;e., guns—into them.'. For long radius fighting the Japanese ships are . very /much, overgunricd, ■ showing plainly enough that they expect to nieet their, next 1 onemy—very possibly.an alliance .of Russia, Germany, and America—quite, close --..to their own; shores. And, ,no doubt, they are right. • War Per Press Association. , -: It. is "very appalling this war.litera T ture of ours when you come to tliiuk of it and,: perhaps, one or two more homely illustratioiis'may not be out of place, j A-year, or two; ago we, had volunteer riianoeuvres' at Johnsonyillo —in,several respects the most,realistic manoeuvres ever hold in New Zealand. But, in the end,' the hoofs of the goat protruded all too plainly from under the skin of the.lion. .. Seeing: just tht immediate, whicfc' was .' 'Wellington and booty" the Blues made, a.night' marqh arid walked into'tho city, It took many days and much argument before it became generally seen that the Blues had merely acted.the part of ; the. mouse, after the, cheese—it had put its head into, a trap, and practically killed itsolf.- But that did, not prevent the ."capture of Wellington" from being announced by. telegraph all over New Zealand, ' For. all', pross' ' purposes, Wellington,.v, had . been, .captured. Last year, at the Kitchener manoeuvres it:was much the same same. The attackers - (Bauchop) practically annihilated the defenders (Joyce) 'but," \by some means or other a, rumour got circulated round the; lines ■■ to. the effect that ! 'Kitchener. ', said . the . attack failfid" (though, to'be sure he did not say ■ anything of : the sort) and tliuSj for the second time the military scribes of your contemporaries made "contact with tho telegraph wires, and the story of :the Johnsonvrille -manoeuvres went,out to the otlier parts of New Zealand down. How tlie Nation is Culled. - But newspapers, are not tne; oiily offenders. . It is well-known now thai, Bonnet Burleigh and others who wero "authorities" in their day, just got •what they.could in the way,of genuine news and "faked" the rest—plans and all. -Thus in the "Campaign in Natal" Mr. Burleigh's plans of Spipn Kop' are obviously , as ' much' like Spion Kop . iisol£ ; as an aver--ago politician's speeoh is like good English. True we have had one conscientious war correspondent—Donald M'Donald —but, alas, like Prometheus, who played with the forbidden fire, he .got what he deserved. Lieu-tenant-Colonel Maude, reviewing his book, flung tho following at him:— "This is evidently the work of an honest greenhorn." Speaking of the charge of the Dayons at Waggon Hill, ho says: "I am convinced that with modern weapons, infantry cannot got homo with the bayonet unless tliq enemy'has first been thoroughly shattered by preparatory fire." And then with great emphasis and point Lieutenant-Colonel Maudo added: "Well,.what tactician since the days of Frederick the Great has ever thought otherwise?" . ■ Militaires in Print. Look at it which way you will, you cannot got anything in English prints which is a bit like war. Somo \A 'thi matter recently contributed to thfi "Post" by Major Lascelles (a soldier tool) was of the crudest, and Major Boyd Wilson—a soldier who I believe saw tho awful trouble on top of Spion Kop—also told tho "Post's" reader* how "dangerous" was Colonel Banchop's double attack at Johnsonvillo last year, the danger of regulating the movement of both wings' at once. Now on a little field, where the firing on ,oae whig was plainly audible to tho

other, could any statement havo been more bookish, more academic, ■ more childish? ' -- - - .-; . ' The Words to Conjuro With: "Henderson." ■ .Although some may\ take all the foregoing to bo puro vitriol it is not vitriol : Avithout a beneficent purpose. I hnyo 1 noticed 'that the Wellington officers spend much more time on a serious study of tho business than do tlio officers of otlier centres. It is really to them that 1 just wish-to say one thing: In all your study there is iio English literature to be depended "on. The other day a Wellington officer lent me "The Science of War" (I believe a very much respected text book) by Colonel Henderson. i,t reminded me of nothing so much as the heavilyleaded and- carefully disguised puffs of the pill-makers. First of all a highsounding title, then an absorbing' prologue; the delighted reader settles, his' spectacles, and prepares to enjoy , :;;a story of exceptional interest. Alack I The devil's hoof soon shows beneath ,th'e broadcloth; the -pill-maker insin--uates hjs pill and "'the book is dashed down with an explotive which the 'R&r: cording Angel surely blots out as soon as Tho body is supposed to ' be. about the. best English .work on war and it contains a highly, commendatory introduction by Lord Roberts, probably the: best exponent, of major strategy who ever, commanded English soldiers. Oul minor tactics,, grand: tactics/ and military history, 'the book is superb. It is, in fact,., like most English books, splendid with the microscope and wofully deficient with the telescope. On. grand strategy, which is the coping, stone of the whole, arch of war, it is nowhere, inasmuch as it denies the existence of fixed principles in strategy. The irony of it (taken in conjunction with Lord lloberts's preface) is that, in February, 1900, Lord Roberts applied successfully one of those Very principles which Colonel Henderson discounts, viz.: "That,other things being equal the .theatre of war. is'best: entered .where the ■_, enemy's frontier forms; a re-entrant, angle." ■ (See map of the Freo. State, as it was.) . If. it 'had 'not ■ been for the Application' of. this principle. which was. fully understood in Germany as early as 1837 the Boer war -would probably never have been won at all. . •■ '■■' Have We a Hope? / " It seems to me that tho Germans, must win in the end,unless we' change our . '.war-literature.,. ..For, except through.literature,;-there is no.,way-of learning the 'highpr branches of. military study. But so rooted, are-we all •to. fixed and accepted ideas that I;sus-, pect wo. never will chance;/ We 'will, still, go on examining beetles through .microscopes, -while tho' unobserved ole'-' phants, on the'other;;side of: the way, inarch by.Nvith their, t'ohgues. in ,their cheeks. . -.' ' : ;.; '■■■'- '■ .-■■"■,, ■" ''j ■' .-•■