THE PRUSSIAN MOUSTACHE.

Stratford Evening Post, Volume XXXVIII, Issue 95, 15 April 1914, Page 4

THE PRUSSIAN MOUSTACHE.

The Prussian General who has ordered his soldiers not to wear the “English” moustache because it is unsuitable to Prussian soldiers and not consonant with the German national character, must not he accused of frivolity, still less of Anglophobia. The mind of a military leader must possess universality. It must comprehend not only guns but buttons, not only strategy but moustaebios, says a London writer. It lias been observed by all writers on military men, from the days of Samson to our own day, that the courage of a soldier, or at least bis good fortune is inextricably bound up with bis hair. Tolstoy has indicated the psychological reasons. No battle, lie points out, is ever won; it is only lost. There conies a moment when one side makes up its mind that it lias lost; when it does that it has lost. The essential thing for a soldier is, therefore, that he should have a good conceit of himself. Experience has shown that nothing gives a soldier a surer conceit of himself than a certain design of hair upon his face. From the nature of things it must be the design he is accustomed to, and which fashion and habit have associated with his country. The operation is twofold ; without the national moustache his own patriotic fortitude would be uncertain, while no soldier could he sufficiently ruthless towards an enemy with the same taste in hair as himself. General von Plettenburg, therefore, in. vetoing the English moustache and insisting upon one specifically German, reveals fiimself a master of military psychology, and this decree of his .may well come to rank him with Roon and Moltke among the architects of the German Army.