“However much thou art read in theory, if thou hast no practice thou art ignorant. He is neither a sage philosopher nor an acute divine, but a beast of burden with a load of books. How can that brainless head know or comprehend whether he carries on his back a library or bundle of faggots?”—Sadi, Gulistan, p. 273.
As each year passes it appears to be more difficult to get officers for the cavalry, consequently any attempt to state what is the best way to train them is always subject to the proviso of the old-time cookery-book, “First catch your hare.” We all know the type of officer required, but we are also aware how hard it is to get him. He has been described over and over again, and can be seen in any cavalry regiment; a man who combines an addiction to, and some knowledge of, field sports, involving horses, with sufficient intelligence to pass into Sandhurst. In order to catch this hare, mess expenses in cavalry have been reduced to a minimum. He is given chargers by Government; they are hired by him if used for other than military purposes, but otherwise they are not paid for. Uniform has been made less expensive. Finally, examinations have been relaxed, though certainly an increase of pay has not yet been tried. And still155 parents and guardians hesitate to send their sons into a service which affords a better training and discipline of mind, body, and manners for the first few years, than is available in any other profession.
Extravagances in the old days have frightened candidates for cavalry commissions away. The more irresponsible press write against the Cavalry.67 Fewer country gentlemen can afford the requisite allowance to their sons.68 Expenditure all round has increased, whilst incomes, at any rate those derived from land, have shrunk. More youngsters go abroad to the colonies. “How hardly shall the rich man enter” the barrack gate now, when so much more work is to be done!69 All honour to him when he does so, and sticks to his profession. Hard work, danger, adversity are the making of a man, and those who fear or shirk such are not likely to make good cavalry officers, or, for the matter of that, good citizens of the Empire. A short comparison of the life of the cavalry officer thirty to forty years156 ago and nowadays may elucidate this to some extent.
Then, as a rule, throughout the winter one parade per week, a horse parade on Saturday, took place. The officer who could afford to do so could hunt every day in the week as long as he went round his stables once during the day. Only the orderly officer (and often his belt was taken by the adjutant, or riding master, or a sergeant-major in the winter) remained in barracks. Sometimes there appeared in orders for Saturday: “Riding School for officers not hunting.” In the summer there were no man?uvres, and only in very exceptional cases was there brigade training. A regimental parade under the C.O. once a week. An adjutant’s drill (only officers junior to the adjutant being present) once a week. All training of men, and they were of longer service then, was done by the adjutant and regimental drill instructors; men and horses were handed over, theoretically ready for the ranks, to the troop officer. To sum up, then, the pay was nominal, and the enforced work was ditto.
Nowadays young officers begin work at daybreak and go on till midday, 1 o’clock, or perhaps till 3 P.M. The squadron officer is now training a succession of men for the Reserve. There is winter training, then squadron training, regimental, brigade, and possibly divisional training. The men are trained to a much higher standard, and they are trained now by the squadron officers and not by the adjutant and his staff.
The nation, supremely ignorant in regard to the detail of military matters, hardly appreciates the fact157 (i.) that nowadays a cavalry officer does at least twice as much work as he did formerly, and (ii.) that the cavalry officer not only devotes his life to a patriotic idea, but must also devote a large portion of his income, at least ￡200 to ￡300 a year, to the same purpose.70 (iii.) The emoluments which he derives from the public purse are, if anything, less nowadays than a hundred years ago.
The old type of cavalry officer, who joined the service for the amusement to be derived from it, is scarcer; but still he is to be found, and he faces hard work cheerfully and well. Against the discouraging influences, and the worst of these is “worry” substituted for “work,” he has his esprit de corps and a fondness for the life, which is an open-air one, and in many respects an interesting one.
For the first few years or so of his service an excess of book knowledge is not required, but it is desirable that the young cavalry officer should be able to express himself clearly in words or on paper, and this he must gain by thinking clearly. Let us consider his duties in those first years, and then we shall see what to teach him. The principle has always been maintained that it is right to work158 him hard when he first joins, and later he can drop into the pace of the remainder. You must teach him to ride and to train a horse. A few officers can do this when they join, and think they are fit to pass out of the riding school at once. But this is not the case; they have next to learn to teach others. Again, he must learn to shoot. He must learn to groom and shoe a horse, and to apply simple remedies. He must learn the few main rules of tactics, reconnaissance, and scouting. He must learn cavalry pioneering. He must learn to use his personal weapon on foot and horseback. All these he must learn, not merely so that he is able to do them himself, but so that he may be able to instruct and be an example to others. He will be taught the care of his men’s health in barracks and on service. He may even be taught book-keeping, and he will certainly learn something of house economy on the mess committee.
But the high-spirited youngster whom we want, and who can leave the service when he wants to, must in some respects be treated like a blood horse, whom we feel we can guide, but cannot stop at a single stride’s notice, as we could a temperate old horse. We must preserve his verve and desire to take the initiative, even if it occasionally leads him to do wrong, when we should remember the great legal maxim, “If the heart is right,” and also our own youthful days.
The addiction to manly, and especially to rough and dangerous, field sports must be regarded as an immense asset towards efficiency for war. Time spent159 in the chase, “the image of war,” must not be regarded as so many hours less given to his employer by the cavalry officer. We particularly want the hunting breed of man, because he goes into danger for the love of it.71 He must also be able to perform any of the diverse duties which he may be called on to carry out on service, such as to fortify a village, construct a pontoon, court-martial a prisoner, and so on.
It is very desirable that he should have as much as possible practically taught to him. A knowledge of the tactics of the other arms should be gained thus, and we are responsible for giving the opportunities, since this will not and cannot be learnt theoretically; verb. sap. Officers, faute de mieux, should be sent to infantry camps and artillery practice camps, not to gun and company drill. This attachment to other arms is carried out by some nations, and especially France, to a far greater extent than in our service. It is invaluable in breaking down the watertight compartment system of training, and in establishing a closer union of arms.
The elements of strategy should also be taught. A few good lectures by an officer who has a taste for this will teach more than a six months’ poring over160 books, for which during his first three years a young officer has little time to spare. At the same time the genuine soldier cannot but be interested in questions of strategy. A knowledge of it gives an entirely new aspect to what might otherwise appear rather dull history.
Then you may say that after three years of this “our young officer is complete and a valuable asset”?
“Far from it.”
“But what more can be asked of him? This covers the complete syllabus, appendices, etc., etc.”
“There is one thing without which all this is as ‘that which profiteth not.’”
“And that is?”
“He must have a strong sense of DUTY, without which he is ‘as sounding brass or a tinkling cymbal.’”
Now man is not born with a sense of duty (though the most riotous young hound often becomes the best in the pack); it has to be taught; it has to be learnt practically as well as theoretically; it has to be borne in on him by precept and example as an excellent, a noble ............