LORD WOLSELEY ON WAR.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XXVI, Issue 9307, 9 March 1889, Page 2 (Supplement)

LORD WOLSELEY ON WAR.

Are we certain that we now alter our system of battle training according as those conditions vary ? Let the man of war experience, whose mind is thoroughly satu rated with the history of what took place in the great struggles between Frank and Teuton in IS7O, visit Aldershot, and then tell the nation whether ho is or is not satistied with what he sees there. Our army is beautifully drilled, but it seems to be dawning upon us that our drill still retains much that was invented by Frederick the Great, and subsequently modified by Sir John Moore to suit tho different conditions under which men fought in his days, from those of fifty years before. The mathematically straight lines and rigid columns, with all their mechanical wheels and elaborate changes of front, in fact, all that we still term " brigade drill," with its obsolete exactness and dressing upon points, meant a great deal a century ago, but have they any relation to a soldier's battle duties in the present epoch ? Are they, as some believe, as useless and objectless now, as would be the hand grenade drill, or the management and handling of tho pike, to which our ancestors attached so much importance in the reigns of the Stuarts ? The soldier to bo of real use in war has now so much to learn that the Germans have ruthlessly wiped out from their military training all the showy and theatrical movements in which some generals still take delight, and by the accurate performance of which they are still prone to estimate the military efficiency of regiments. There are some even who think that you might quite as usefully teach our soldiers to dance, and as justly estimate their battle value by the exactitude with which they performed the sailor's hornpipe. Modesty forbids me to say how much superior I know tho "turn out" of our cavalry, infantry, and artillery to be to that of all other nations. Bub, although this smartness of appearance may please the eye in Hyde Park, will it in the least degree help towards success in battle ? In other armies, the attention which we pay to burnishing our steel chains and polishing our brass buttons, is rivcttedon efficient "battletraining," and the care and energy of their ' officers arc devoted to its teaching. Which is right on this point, the German army or our army ? The question is an important one. Many think that our drill w meant to prepare the British army, for a " battleex porienco. of the past."—Fortnightly Rβi view.