The Sun

THE GENERAL STAFF.

Its Training and the Work It Will Perform—The French and British Drafts.

The General Staff for the army, the achievement of Secretary Root, has a material existence, and the War College, where the future General Staff is to be trained, is just entering on its great work.

Now that we have a General Staff of our own and the beginnings of a War College, it may be well to cast a glance at the work of other war colleges and the manner in which other General Staffs are trained and worked.

It so happens that the new orders (issued annually) for the rides or journeys of instruction of the officers of the French War College have just been issued, and they are very interesting, as illustrating how much is done in France for the training of these officers.

In France, the officers who have passed the entrance examination to the War College are ordered during the summer preceding their entrance of the college to duty in the two arms of the service other than their own, and, consequently, when they report at the college on Oct. 1 they have a practical knowledge of the other two arms, which renders the theoretical instruction at the college much more useful to them. In Germany, on the other hand, the officers are thus detailed to serve in the other arms after the first year at the War College, during the summer vacations. In France this period is utilized for the practical field instruction of the officers of the first year.

The exercises last from May 21 to Aug. 15. The officers of the first year's class during this period, perform the following work: A journey of four days in studying fortifications; a seven days' cavalry ride of instruction; a six days' infantry ride; a seven days' journey over the battlefields of Orléans, Coulmiers, Loigny and Patay; a five days' artillery ride of instruction; a five days' visit to the Artillery Firing School at Poitiers; and, finally, a twenty days journey to study the entire northern frontier.

The officers of the second year's class take a ten days' General Staff ride or journey, make a visit of twenty days to the camp of Chalons, where they take part in the infantry target practice (which is there conducted simulating war conditions), and make an inspection of the gare regulatrice in Reims (an important railroad station for the mobilization and strategic deployment of the French Army in time of war), take part in a three days' exercise in the attack and defence of fortifications at Belfort, then make a twenty days' journey along the Alps, and, finally, a four days visit to the battlefields of Aug. 18, 1870, and of Sedan.

The General Staff and the Military History journeys are made on horseback, the rest either by rail, by carriage, by bicycle or on foot. At the end of these summer exercises the officers take part in the autumn manoeuvres.

It is thus seen how much attention is given to practical instruction in the open, in addition to the theoretical studies at the War College itself. Our own institution will no doubt pursue a similar course, and the graduates, after such severe work, should do credit to the institution.

Having seen what work is required to train a General Staff officer, let us see what is expected of a General Staff in time of war, and in a manner prepare our own fine body of General Staff officers for what they may expect from the army in our next campaign.

The British Army furnishes an excellent example, and the Military Mail, in a recent number, gives us a picture that offers much food for reflection:

It is a standing tradition, not altogether peculiar to the British Army, to abuse the Army Staff, both in peace and war time, "more especially in war time." This practice, no doubt, has its origin in the extreme incapacity that the staff have at times displayed, but has now become one of the axioms of active service. This is curious because, if one person is more essential than any other, not only to comfort, but to military success, it is the staff officer, that is to say, the good staff officer; he is worth his weight in gold. It would appear from history that the British Army has been cursed with an incompetent staff at many periods of its past. In the Peninsula the Duke had leavened and winnowed his staff till it was extremely efficient; but, anon, by the time of Waterloo, half the best men were in America or in the uttermost parts of the earth; so that for that crowning campaign he had the worst staff, to give his own words, that a General was ever cursed with. In Tirah the staff was cursed and abused most heartily, sometimes perhaps with reason, but far in excess of what their mistakes merited; in South Africa, as a matter of course, every one abused the staff. Doubtless it was due to the shortcomings of the staff that the army "swore so terribly in Flanders."

The people who abuse the staff are the regimental officers, and, under them, the rank and file because it is they who at once feel the effect of bad staff work. But the regimental officer is an unreasoning individual at times, and does not always discriminate between staff caprice and the exigencies of the service. Many a vexatious counter order comes, not from ill-thought-out arrangements, but because of the unlooked-for movements of the enemy, or for some other reason that would be recognized as good if it were known.

While, therefore, the reckless criticism of the staff, viz., the War Staff of the army, so prevalent with us, is much to be deprecated, it must be clearly understood that a staff needs to be absolutely worthy of confidence. If officers and men are to follow blindly and uncomplainingly, they must follow men who may make an error of judgment—all are human—but who never make an error in routine administration through carelessness, ignorance and lack of energy.

These are some of the trials that the General Staff officer will have to endure, but it is hoped that the War College training and the detail system (by which the officers remain on the General Staff for a term of four years only, thus insuring constant change in its personnel) will overcome all difficulties and give us a staff like that of Germany in 1870-71, whose praises (in spite of many blunders) are still sung by military men at home and abroad.

The detail of instructors and students for the Army War College will probably be made early in October, and the system of instruction and training will begin at once. With the present carefully selected and able corps of General Staff officers in charge of this institution, there can be no question as to the character of the work that will be done and the thoroughness of the training that will be given.