AN ITALIAN CRITIC ON ENGLISH OFFICERS.

Waikato Times, Volume XXXIII, Issue 2671, 24 August 1889, Page 6 (Supplement)

AN ITALIAN CRITIC ON ENGLISH OFFICERS.

The victory of tho English at Snakim affords a further demonstration — were it still needed — of their great superiority over other European , ! in colonial warfare, and of their marvellous aptitude—tho true characteristic of a conquering racein organising and in leading into action forces raised from, among conquered peoples. Be their soldiers Hottentots of West Africa, Ghourkas of the Himalaya, Sikhs of the Punjaub, or negroes of the Soudan, English officers know how to bring them under control, to discipline and instruct them, and to lead them to victory. The reason of this command over the militarisablc elements of conquered races, which English officers exercise in a so much greater degree than do those of other colonising nations, will be easily understood by bearing in mind that their natural inclination is more warlike, than military, and that the nature of their studies is humane and civilising. Whoever has, for any length of time, frequented the society of English officers so as to thoroughly known them, must have observed that while they possess in their full development the noblest qualities of the soldier, they exhibit in a much less degree than do those of.other nations those characteristics—certainly not always agreeable— which seem peculiarly to result from the habitudes of a military life. Daring to temerity in the face of danger, the English officer is generally modest and reserved in ordinary intercourse ; he, no matter how intimate he may bo with you, will never trouble you by talking of himself, his campaigns, his wounds, hia honors. Of that arrogant, almost detiant, bearing which the ott'cers of certain continental armies too frequently assume towards their civilian fellow citizen, there is no trace in the English officer. To terrorise by means of arbitrary acts, or to gain popularity by means of weak concession'!, he dooms equally contemptible, and unworthy of him. The English have no military seminaries like our military colleges. Young men who desire to obtain a commission in tho army can only only do so by passing through the schools nt Sandhurst or Woolwich, through the militia, or by proving to tin; satisfaction of.a purely civil board of examiners— called the Civil Service Commission—that they are sufficiently instructed in mathematics, classics, and modern languages. It is no rare thing to lind English officers writing with elegance and purity of style, and remarkable also for the breadth and humanity of their ideas, while it is very rare to find in continental military writers the thinker and the politician so perceptibly. In tho lattir we recognise the. individual, not a mere unit in a collective institution—for example, .Malcolm, Napier, liamiey, Wolseley, Brackenl,i,ry —General Corte, in the Adriatico (Venice).