GERMAN AND BRITISH SOLDIERS COMPARED.

Hawera & Normanby Star, Volume XLVI, Issue 76412, 13 January 1903, Page 4

GERMAN AND BRITISH SOLDIERS COMPARED.

"Linesman" writes in . Blackwood'a Magazine on the recent German manoeuvres. Discussing the difference between the German soldier and Tommy Atkins, and" the systems' of which they are the product," •" Linesman" says :— The German private soldier, however much he may learn before a war, will learn nothing in war. His mind is cast in a different mould to that of our own Tommy Atkins, a very malleable fellow, who in South Africa took to new conditions like a duck to water, and improved upon innovations to beat the innovators. What the German has- learnt he has* learnt with a thoroughness of which no 1 other human being is capable. What he has not learned, the fear of death, itself, sWift tutor though it be, will not induce him to practice. When an army is defeated in battle its salvation, let the text books -say what they will, depends more upon the innate valour and loyalty of the soldiers than upon any disciplinary codes, the larger the army the more this is the case, for anarchy lurks over in terrified or despondent mobs. A British army has never in all history been defeated in .the sense of having 1 its pdwef' of-- recuperation destroyed, ior inextingjaish"able loyaltyi the' ch^ld of H irec will, and tho cause of free 'service, permeating the rank and file, rendered a debacle impossible.- Conscription is a* great juggler in - the Fatherland. It takes - the , : traders,r .and - leaves .trade uninjured ; it invades without dislo? eating civil life; it seals 'tEe bodies of men to itself without either quenching or setting fire to their spirits — these are wonderful feats, visible to all .beholders. But it is impossible to help doubting the genuineness of .its great | miracle, the creation of a military; I spirit whose splendour is impressed upon you. by every German soldier with an insistence almost pathetic, quite- unconvincing. They do protest too much. Conscription ~as yet has herded the nation only to success. The spirit which bears up , and ,growa stouter under disaster, tho inspiration of the free alone in every bus ness under the sun, how shall it dwell in millions who are not free ?

, To^.a Briton an , officer of, the Qerman general staff is a kind of admirable monstrosity (continues, the writer). He is not v a staff officer first arid other things afterwards — a sportsman or a man* of letters, for instance, like — ta_y of your own.. He is a staff officer first and nothing afterwards ; he is all staff officer, steeped in the multifarious knowledge the term implies, and in love with his knowledge. To him no. greater sjiame could come than a, military exigency to which Ke fouijd himself. nnecjDal. Such a ono rarely -<; comes— -it/iiever- comes. Every German officer " knows his business/ i that is a mere , commonplace of the trade, and 'attracW.no attention) whatever, but the German staff officer is an expert dn his business, a man whose unremitting, application has been crowned J>y; a prize he must still toil night and day. to retain, the loss of which he y would not care to survive. It is easy to understand the result.. There is 'probaWy not in all professions,- or, societies soever _ group of men' more, sufficient, for the work -to be do_e. The German staff is a body of soldiers, already the most learned in their profession the world has over seen/' yet still learning, and still keen to learn. Their 'humility, would be surprising iwere it not sf common tribute of accomplished gentlemen. They are . thus twice blest, for knowledge is but one degree a power tba'n the desire for knowledge. „.„.;