i6o PINK AND SCARLET 



trajectory, a perfected machine gun, high explosives, 

 and quick-firing guns. 



Thinking of all these, it does not require much 

 acumen to see that it is only by having resolute men 

 fully imbued with the all-important " get on " feel- 

 ing, possessing the necessary discipline to make 

 them go on when told, and led by officers who, 

 down to the last -joined second-lieutenant, will 

 act on their own initiative (take their own lines, 

 in fact), that we can hope to win Almas in modern 

 war. 



We are told that it was the " well-grounded train- 

 ing of the individual," ^ combined with the ready 

 initiative of the officers, which made the Germans so 

 superior to the French in 1870. Our individuals, 

 i. e. our non-commissioned officers and men, cannot 

 hunt to acquire the "get on " feeling which, as we 

 have just shown, should underlie all training for war, 

 but luckily our Officers can, and they should lose no 

 opportunity of imparting the feeling so learnt to 

 their men. For just as it is best for the horse to be 

 taught to jump by the man who will subsequently 

 ride him to hounds, so should the soldier be taught 

 to face his " fences " by the man who will lead him 

 in battle. 



Mutual confidence is thus established, and when 

 the trial comes the soldier can be encouraged — nay, 



those for some distance around him, hit by he knows not whom, 

 will try the soldier's nerves much as the suspected presence of 

 wires in the fences tries those of the rider across country. 

 ^ The Battle of Spicheren, Henderson. 



