FIELD-MARSHAL VON MOLTKE

Waikato Times, Volume XXXI, Issue 2549, 10 November 1888, Page 2 (Supplement)

FIELD-MARSHAL VON MOLTKE

After holding the post of Chief of the General Staff for thirty-two years, FieldMarshal Count von Moltke has resigned an office which he made illustrious, and has been appoieted President of the Commission of National Defence, a position heretofore filled by the Crown Princes of the House of Hohenzollern. The charge is neither sudden nor unexpected. For some years his actual successor, Count von Waldersee, who has been trained for the duties under the Marshal's exacting eye, has acted for him in that marvellous and effective establishment, and his selection then foreshadowed his elevation sooner or later. At eighty-eight years of age a warrior has won a title to rest, and Von Moltke probably felt that it would be better for the institution he made so great, and for the " freshly compacted " Empire, where the transition from his own superintendence to that of a younger man gradual and not abrupt. Still, the final step is, in its way, an event; for the German, and especially the Prussian Army, has become so accustomed to the guidance of this greatsoldier.thatalthotigh he remains in a higher sphere, and will be until he dies a chief directing agent, his retirement from the post with which his name is identified, begets a sense of something wanting, something which was and will bo no more. The tried man departs, the untried man enters in his placo; the unknown succeeds to the known; for, however considerable may be the abilities of Count von Waldersee, he has yet to test them in a position of vast responsibility, and some doubt must hover about lim until ho has proved himself worthy to sit in that 'siege perilous," Von Moltke's chair. Confidence in a chief goes half-way to the making, and still more the using of armies effectively ; and if the Kings of Prussia have often been real chiefs, all men know, and especially German men, that the brain of their disciplined host was, we should say still is, the rare genius who has just retired from the General Staff.

It may be truly said that the Prussian Army, which has assimilated to itself all the other Germancorps, was made what it is by William 1., Von Roon and Von Moltke. The foundations, the principles were there when Moltko was appointed head of the

General Staff, but the superstructure was built up by the labours of this trio ; and the mighty institution which has astoni shed Europe during the last quarter of a century, dates from the moment when they applied their minds and energies to make it what it is. Von Roon's fine capacities for orginisation, the King's unwearied industry, were essential, and went for much ; but the spirit that was breathed into the machine, making it a living reality, came from the Chief of the General Staff. It was because all the workers acted on thorough business principles, based themselves on the solid ground of facts, and set up a high standard towards which they might ever ap. proximate if they could not attain it, that so great a success was achieved in the creation of this formidable instrument for defence or offence. What we may called Von Moltke's apprenticeship was prolonged. He did not reach the vantage-ground of power till he was 56 years old. The young Meckienburger, born in 1800, who first served in Denmark, and entered the Prussian Army in 1822, rose slowly into eminence, but surely, and the posts he filled showed that his ability and vast knowledge were appreciated at an early day. In the long era of peace on the Continent, promotion was almost stagnant, and he did not reach the rank of Captain till ha was thirty-four. If we look, however, at the posts he filled, we shall ses that

his directing capacity was recognised, for we find him permanently established on the General Staff of 1532. The reason was that he possessed not only exceptional ability, but was ceaselessly industrious, and a student in many fields of knowledge. Perhaps his upward progress was most facilitated by his Oriental journey, when the Sultan or his Minister begged that be might be allowed to help in re-creating an Ottoman Army. For he gained so much credit in Turkey that the Sultan gave him the Nischan, and, on his return, still only a captain, his Sovereign bestowed on him the Order of Merit. When these facts are remembered, it does not soom surprising that King William should have placed him so promptly in the high post ho has just relinquished. The astonishing thing is that a man should begin his career as a conspicuous actor on a great stage so late in lif«, and that his mental and bodily vigour should have enabled him to prolong it, through such severe trials, for more than a quarter of a century. He was sixty-six when he made war on Austria, and seventy when he touched the spring which set in motion that enormous host which overpowered the French armies and fouuded a German Empire in the Palace of Versailles.

The world judges and must judge men by their actions; for they have no other materials on which to found a judgment. The tumult and splendour of victory, e.-pecially such victories as those of 18G6 and IS7O, strike on and dazzle the imagination by their vastness aud by their stupendously dramatic effects. The true greatness lies behind tho smoke and uproar. Just, as tho real labours of the soldier, which make him so potent—his wearying vigils, his long marches, his endless toil, and frequent privation —are unseen, aud it is only when he flames out on tho battle-field that he becomes visihlo and wins renown; so the deep fetudy, the forethougnt, the sleepless care of the General which are needed to bring a host into effective collision with its foes are not, nor ever can bo, fully apparent to the ordinary and even attentive observer. Yet it is in the preparation—and the word in war menns so much—in the manifold eudurance of the troops and the skilful judgment of tho General, that two-thirds of the merit lie. Koniggratz and Sedan command admiration and arouse enthusiasm, they are so huge and dramatic ; but the essence of tho thing done is to bo found in what preceded the thunder of battle, and that is thn work of the directing minds. It was in this work that Vnn Moltke excelled ; and if it, be alleged that he profited by the lesser capacity of his opponents in Bohemia and France, the same may be said of nearly every General, because it is precisely the business of the superior to bfiflle and overhear the inferior intellec , . Von Moltke's opponents were at least as respectable as most of the meu who warred against Coesar and Napoleon. In like manner, the infinite industry, tact, and sound judgment required to make and maintain an Army in constant efficiency, that kind of complete readiness all through which renders is capable of taking the field in a fortnight in fighting array, can never be appreciated by the world at large. Yet iu some respects, there is the greatest work of all, calling for perseverance, foresight, firmness, and such vigilance to discern improvements and will to apply them as makes an army plastic, vital from end to end, and adaptable to every emergency. It is because the German host does not crystallise, but lives, that it is so formidable. That spirit of growth and adaptability to everchanging facts, is due in a very large degree to the veteran Field-Marshal. It would bo a mistake to suppose that Von Moltke is "only a soldier." Hie mind has ranged over all the fields of knowledge. He is a master of many —who shall say how many ?—languages, having a faculty for acquiring them like Emin Pasha. He has read

widely, he is a musician and an artist. The published letters show what an eye lie has for topography, how keen and accurate an observer he has always been, and how deep are his sympathies with beauty in Nature. War, rude as it is, has not operated to narrow liis intellect to its sphere, and his all-round ability, which astonishes, is really common to minds of his calibre. He is. or has beeiiF on occasion, playfully sentimental. When he was travelling down the Euphrates, he came to the old Roman station of Zeugma at the moat westerly bend of the river, still called Rumkalek. There, in the ruined castle, he stood one quiet night, listening to the murmer of the stream deep down in its rocky bed. 'Then passed by in the moonlght,' he wrote. 'Cyrus and Alexander Zenophon, Craaar and Julian. From this spot they beheld the empire of Chosroes as I myself saw it, for here Nature never changes." Drinking the last bottle of champagne which he had brought from " the YVestern to the Eastern border ot

the Empire," he paraphrased the ballad and imitated the action of the King in Thule, flinging the heiligen Becher into the abyss, as " a sacrifice to fie memory of the grand Roman people." It is characteristic of the man of business that he did not sacrifice the golden liquor also to his sentimental dreams. He was young when he sat in the moonlight upon the ruins of Zeugma ; and none of his nation, nor he himself, could have imagined that the tall, slim captain of infantry who could ride thirty-eight hours at a stretch, would be the practical chief in two great wars, and still at eighty-eight hold the highest military place in Germany under the Emperor. So it is; but, high as he stands, the withdrawal of Von Moltke from the office he has made famous is an impressive fact, —an event which warns us that

the hour is near when the controlling spirits of the Continent will be all new men.