The Dominion. SATURDAY, MARCH 29, 1913. A STAINLESS SOLDIER.

Dominion, Volume 6, Issue 1710, 29 March 1913, Page 4

The Dominion. SATURDAY, MARCH 29, 1913. A STAINLESS SOLDIER.

Death has removed one of the mily two proved strategists whose names figure on the British Army list, Lokd Wolseley's demise having been announced by cable this week. Our only other proved strategist is, of course, Loud Roberts, ana it is well worthy of record that every British campaign of any consequence during tlie last fifty , years which has not been, directed by one or other of these twc» distinguished soldiers been marked by initial mishaps, miscalculation, and blunders. more or lcs3 serious. It is interesting to notice that both Lord Wo&seley and Lord Roberts began to mako their way as young officers at a time when the higher art of war was (as far as Britain was concerned) in a very nebulotis and vague state.. 'The Prussian model— which, is how the model for all armies—was, of course, then progressing, but it was iittle kno\vn, and it was only when the dramatic svents of the terrible war against France in 1870-71 took place that men's attention was arrested by the fact that ah entii-ely new phase of nilitary science Had arrived. To this new school of thought, Eng.and's first cohVert of ally, cuftseluence was Wslseley, and, having, jut his hand to the plough in an at;empt to "Germanise" the English irmy, ho never looked back. Strangely enough, Lord Roberts— >rilliant though he .has always been -has, apparently, never been attracted by nor "converted to this chooh All . .Lord Robelits's camjftigns represent/ What may be ermed the "geometric school of war" -the school of Jo'mini and llajiley— il'ought up to date, and, as far as his theory o'f warfare goes, he has iroVcd himself the world's masterland. He 1 has always been, an adept it "sparring for position," as, for example, in 1900, when he enveloped ihd then entered the. south-west :orner' of the Orange Free State, vhich was the only spot qh all the 'ast South African theatre of war vhore the configuration of the rontier and the lis of the railways md' rivers gave him the supreme i<tr*«tage ot ■ a re-entrant position, ihe Boer forces being salient to him intil the occupation of ' Bloemfbn;ein. Such for position is, ind must ever be, the trump card of he strategist Who is not quite sure >f the battle efficiency of his troops. Phat Lord Roberts has always waged ihis. geometric sort of war indicated ong ago'to the trained eye that he vas never sure of the organisation ind efficiency of an ordinary Engish army, and he himself has sihee nade his. bSlief oil this point iblinddiltly. ClCar by recent speeches it Home. He hafe cVen gone the ength cf stating that British Terriofialsj fitted against Cohtiilentals, vould tirtly be "food fol- shrapnel." Very diftorent from this theory is llilfc bi' Pl'llßsiil—the tlitiol'y which jORD AVolseley followed. There is i vague but popular impression tJjat icrman. , major > strategy ' . ' is 'cry profound, complicated stuff, iristling with a}l sorts of ecSlilii'cjQities, - btifc in tl'iith it is illiiost the estehce of simplicity. It' iccepts the doctrine : of ClAusewitz -hat war is a conflict of national jolicies, to be solved in. blood, and ilood only, and it is entirely based m what the military books sniheinles refer to as the second principle n strategy: ,viz;, that an army must lot be committed : to the oifeilsive intil; in .the judgment of .its comnander; it is prepared to keep the iffensivS. Having once taken the iffensivs, the last shot must be fired md (if need be) the last life given ip in maintaining it. This implies hat, ill peace time, such preparaion must have been made that whenver wilr is declared the offensive irmy (or armies) rolls forward in tresistible mass into the theatre , of Var. We know froih the few rettftfks Which Lord Wolseley ever let Irop on tho subject of the major trat-egy of the Boer war that, if he lad been honoured by the chief comn&nd. ia South Africa, in ' 1900, he rould'have made a great concentraion alid sought to have passed the )rahgfe: River at Nerval's Pont, liei-eaftet advancitig 'frontally on 31oetnfiili,tein, and not from a flank is Lord Roberts did. Whichever of liese two plans Would have been letter for a general officer commaridng English troops, and subject to iie-iasli of English impatience -for estilts,. it is difficult for the layman say. Lord AVolsEley's plan would lave led to some very bloody battles, lilt it 'mild have obviated that disoncertlillg. delay, at Bloemfohteln vHich gave tile Boer forces time to rick up heart again kfter Lord loßEßT.'j's first dramatic entry into lie Fi ; i!e State. But, on the Other iand, it is doubtful ' Whether the eniper of the Ehglish nation would lave endured, the long Wait south of he Orahge 1 River which would haVe teen necessary to have organised a aiiigaigtl on Gernian lines, arid the iloodshed that woiUd,have attended bo fits'i series of general actions. It I'oilld, (jf course, have shortened lie war and saved millions of ijioney o the . nation, and the. total loss of ife in the elkl would probably have leeii tho same in each case, but tlie ion-discerning public ; (in whose lands ;the reputation of a general vbi - reiits) might' not have seen this. Campaigns actually waged by jORD Wolseeey serve to reveal this joletldid soldier, and, incidentally, he German tllcoi'y, at their best. ?her6 tvas, fof itistancei the steady, ritshitig, :rion-stOp advance in the Lshanfec war, and, in later years, he Egyptian, campaign of 1882. vhich culminated in the battle of Pcl-el-Kcbii'i regarding which one larticipant remarked:—''lt was all o cleverly and diabolically coirdiriilted, ahd tinied tii the tick of lid cloiik, that, after the first ad'aticfi, it Seciiicd like murder to shoot ho poor beggars any more." Only ince has the .finger of criticism been Griously laid tho. late 1 Lord ,Volsei.ey--the. failuro _ i to reach jORDON* and Khartum in time in he Nile campaign of 1884. It is iow known, however, that those rcponsible for this were tho Liberal Vdministration and War Office, of vhitili the late Mr. Gladstone was hen .head. It appears that Lord Yolsei.ey, ' throwing his usual autiori and regard fol- effective preiaration to tho .Winds, almost went in his knees to Mr. Gladstone in a rain endeavour to point' out that time was the essence of the whole matter. Of . the cruel injustice tlphe to IjORiD Wolseeey in this respect, he never publicly complained. In i, striking article published some

years ago on "The Plncc of War in the Life of a Nation," LlisljfKS'ANTCoiiOKEr,' said that lie found the ultima ratio of the soldier caste in the words! "Greater love hath no man than this, that a malt lay down his life for a friend." In Lonn AVoLSELfct's ease We find _ tuv almost greater Sacrifice—ii willingness to lay down his reputation (if need be) fl-oni & sense of duty to his political superiors. History will no doubt agree that he was a stainless soldier.