IF ONE WROTE TO LORD ROBERTS.

Dominion, Volume 4, Issue 1086, 27 March 1911, Page 6

IF ONE WROTE TO LORD ROBERTS.

WHAT HE MIGHT SAY. AND AVHT IT SHOULD BE SAID, (By Gyro.) During dfecuision on the Army in the Hou?e of Commons, Lieut.-General Sir ltegimld Polc-Carew said that he had had considerable experience of .Sir lau Hamilton. His book was like himEetf —flighty and unreliable. It had been written chiefly to sell, and as an advertisement, and. incidentally, for the satisfaction of the Secretary of State for War.—lieccnt cable.

Vole-Oarew was a splendid soldier when he was with the Army, but he has done nothing better than this—this denunciation of lan Hamilton, war lord, panjandrum, and idol with feet of clay.

The sham of the particular book to which. Sir Reginald Pole-Carew referred has long been seen through, but not so somo of his other writings. He went as a British military attache to the Japanese War, and, after he returned, perpetrated two terrible volumes which he called "A Staff Officer's Scrap Book.-" They remind one of a raw critic "doins" a Jlelba concert—it is not so much what he says as what he fails to notice which reveals the state of his military soul. Only about a dozen pages in it have any soldierly value, and, though the German General Staff translate all books on war into German for the use of their own officers, they boggled at this one, and severely cut it down. It is doubtful if the German Staff have ever done this with any other book of the kind.

Now, all this has a meaning touching ourselves. Our youns area officers, recently let loose on the country from the Tauhcrinikau camp, axe beginning to read a good deal of what they call "military science," and, with a number of them, the Hamilton "Scrap Book" is a very fine work. They think (though somewhat dimly and vaguely) that it has to do with that cheerful shibboleth—"modern weapons."

Supposing that one of these young officers, fully realising his responsibilities and the clash in which he will, no doubt, be involved before another ten years are past—supposing that he braced himself for serious study, and set out to master the mysteries which have been wrestled with and solved in Europe, ho could not go very far. Ho would find, after two or three years of patient reading, that there is hardly a book in English which is* worth the paper it is written-on. I have before mo as I write, "Publications of Interest"—a plaintivo little brown-covered thing issued by the English War Office every three months. It contains a number of notices of travel pictures, elephant hunting on the Zambesi, and so forth, and some quasi-mili-tary skotches. These are written by Englishmen. All the serious works mentioned are by foreigners. And here are tho colonies, bubbling over with a new enthusiasm—the enthusiasm of war—and not a tbing to guide them or shape their national attitude towards it. New Zealand has been wiso ivith universal service, Australia is about to perpetrate the great mistake of a local navy (with armoured ships), v;hilo Canada is pursuing a dark policy which only her politicians could adequately explain. South Africa is not yet quite on her legs, but, no doubt, it will not be long before she frames a. war policy too. And all (in tho absence of recognised authorities on war) are like mules in a team,'pulling different ways—like an army endeavouring to move on twenty-five objectives at once. These stupidities are only made possiblo by the steady (but very unintelligent) feeling of loyalty to tho Empire, wliich undoubtedly pervades the masses, and the masses are moving blindly in the dark. 1 have often thought that someono should imitate those pleasant, but rather ineffective people—the boy scouts—who are fond of writing to' the great ones of the earth, and ask Earl Roberts (our only strategist) to give the nation a book entitled: "War —a Book of Guidance for the Colonies." Tho letter might run something like this': Earl Roberts, ■ of Kandahar, Pretoria, and. Waterford, "Englemevc," Ascot,' England, My Lord,—We eat meat out here. Wo eat it, in large quantities, three times a day. This meat is very potent. It makes us savage, and inclined for fight. As showing its effect in a very circumscribed little colony, it may ba mentioned that, not long ago, a rather eccentric l'ole, named Powelka, broke out of prison, and, like a Hash, the whole countryside turned out after him with shotguns. People said it was "scare," but much scare there was about it. It was merely meat talking through gun barrels. Rugby football, anil a somewhat, strenuous education system aro dying out—the new toy in these latitudes is war.

lour Lordship is, of course, aware that' the time will not be long before we (that is .England and the colonies) will have to take part in a war of invasion—a Continental war of invasion—or go under altogether. We will, as your Lordship well knows, have to do it in conjunction with a Continental ally, or, maybe, two. Tho only possible enemy—and a supremely serious enemy for us—can call up 2,500,000 trained men (with very highly trained officers) in one week, and 6,000,000 in threo weeks. Our total in'the same "emergencv (mclndiii.7 the whole Indian Army ■ and volunteers) would bo less than 1,000,000 and (meat notwithstanding) every one of them would bo worth two cf us My Lord, people do not yet realise what changes science is working on the world. Invention is making the North Sea narrower every year, and what is to-dav a question for the x\avy is, slowly but surely, becoming a matter for the Armv I do not know whether your Lordsliip leads the colonial newspapers, but wo v aVO ! !, v , Cl Tu brilliant io,,rnal "> Austra- •\ call , etl i the "Bulletin." It is justly listened to and heeded, because (in. addition to its brilliance) it has a bedrock of intense honesty. Unfortunately it has been side-tracked on tho question of war, and has, somehow, hit out on the wrong line altogether. That is why an Australian navy of armoured ships is now being called into being; people seem to think that the next enemy is Japan. How stupid all that is need not be pointed out to your Lordship Could you not write the book mentioned above Jt you could, one is inclined to think that, all would bo well. lt_ should show (1) how perilous- (ho international positon iq for us; (2) that our groat navy is a thin» of diminishing importance; (3) that to savo ourselves we must eventually invade on land; (4) that ' nioateaters would be grand men for such a matter if hainod a la Scherff, a'la Clauswitz. a la Ymly do Vernois. a la Captain May, a la Prince Kraft, a I a Jacob Meckel, a la about 2000 other gentlemen of foreign extraction. We expoct to have 100.000 "trained men in New Zealand by 1016. That is good. Supposing that all the other colonies were responding pro vat a. what sort of a united commando could we. send (o any possible theatro of war straight away? And (with one Continental ally) how would wo launch it? It. requires sonio undoubted authority, such as your Lordship, to point that out. ' " I have the honour to be Your Lordsliip, Your. Obedient Servant,

r.S.-Jn case your Lordship should not have noticed how far the nation is hein" led astray by quacks on war, I append here"with a few notes on the "popular works" which happen to catch my eye, as 1 am writing at present. Goodness only knows how much harm they have donc-thev and others like them. Encyclopaedia Brit- As a matter of annia (article on fact, Sheridan and "War"): "The great SMi.trt. Jf the nho"t leaders of horsemen of Oeneral I.onnstrcrf in the American Civil ever rends thoEncv Wur-Shoridan and nlopacdia in Wallialliongslrcct. la. he must be .in astonished tbost indeed. Dr. Fitchett ("Deeds Pooh! The vetcrthat Won the Em- .ins of Austorlitz. pirc") on tho Old etc., mostly perished Guard at Waterloo: in Russia in 1812 "Veterans of Austor- and there could have lit*, Jena, and Fried- been no "Hundred knd; the prestige of victories." Xapoleon 100 victories played only fought about 60 around their bayo- battles all told, and nets." the Guard did not figure In thirty per i ■ oont. of them.

Any current ac- How many know count of Waterloo, that, on tho day after Waterloo, a general unci regular battle was fought, between the Prussians and French, and the latter won? Accounts of Trafal- All knocked to gar. pieces by Admiral Columb in a critical analysis written in 1895. Donald Jlacdonald And an English, re(Australian war nor- viewer calmly asked: respondent): "Dis- "Well, what tactician covered" that a. bay- since the days of onet charge, with Frederick the Great modern weapons, is has ever thought not possible unless otherwise?" the defence has been thoroughly shattered by preparatory fire." Mr. W. T. Stead: It seems to have Has just written taken the good man something to the cf- quite a lone time to feet that "after all discover this clementone begins to see ary fact, that Germany is a. spirit affecting the peace of Europe which will not be exorcised." Conan Doyle ("The Just the very thing Great Boer War"): which experience "One thing at Paar- shows lie should have deberg. Lord Kitch- done, encr should not have done—he should not have attacked." Bennett Burlcigh This work is indo("Campaign iu Ka- scribably had from tal"). preface to finis. Tho maps, for instance, are "fakes." J. Holland Rose, Omits to notice that the current author- tho French method of ity on Napoleon. attack in 1796 was in line of double company (iolumns. As early as 1808 it changed to brigade and division columns. To miss this is to miss the key to the Napoleonic wars. The London "Times" On the other hand (last mail) has ar- the German General rived at the conciu- Staff minht prefer to sion that "a Blow, put in their side of draggine war would quarrel like a shot not euit Germany, out of a gun. How and England is the long would it take? only Power which About three i-oelc. could force her to And when "light it fight a, war,of that happen? Well, say in kind." iO. The English Kc- These and tho Conviews. tinontal writers havo two diametrically opposite ways of looking at war. It is doubtful if both can be right.