EXPERIENCE ALLIED TO YOUTH.

Ashburton Guardian, Volume 58, Issue 88, 24 January 1938, Page 4

EXPERIENCE ALLIED TO YOUTH.

... \ | The foreign viewpoint of the recent changes in the high command of the British Army, as expressed by French, German and Polish experts, is interesting, writes the London correspondent of the “Liverpool Post.” These foreign experts point out that those now promoted have never had to plan operations on the scale imposed by modern war conditions, and while agreeing that youth should be represented on the high command, they are of the opinion that in Army hierarchies it is desirable that there should be a happy blend of youth and experience with their complementary attributes. History, according to them, has shown that the most successful campaigns have been waged by such a combination an elderly commander with a young chief-of-staff or vice-versa. Outstanding examples which they quote in support of their theory are Napoleon and Berthier, Roberts and Kitchener, Hindenburg and Ludendorff, Foch and Weygand, Mackensen and Seecht, and Plumer and Harington. But there's always the case of Wellington, whose Waterloo came in his forties.