NATURE 



4 si 



rHURSDAY, FEBRUARY 



EDUC 1 HON IN THE ARMY. 

 ' I ""HE publication of the Second Interim Ri 

 -* of the Adult Education Committee of the 

 Ministry ol Reconstruction, presided over by the 

 ter of Balliol, on "Education in the Army" 

 pi ii i- ji/. ), ma) raise hopes « hii h .1 

 study of the report will disappoint. For the 

 report was written several months before the 

 Armistice, being dated Jul] ;, 1918, and is 



1] mainl) with the educational problems of 



. my living and working under different con- 

 ditions from those which exisl 10-day. Some 

 thi pul ilii .11 ion 1 ii 1 he 1 1 



\n appendix contains .1 note by Col. Lord G 



Deputy Directoi ol Staff Duties (Education 

 the Wat d November 8, [918. The 



ion oi this branch at the War Office was one 

 of the chief recommem >1 the Committee, 



which wisel) suggested thai the proposed new 

 braneh should be placed under the direction of a 



ally qualified military officer of academic dis- 

 tinction and with educational experience. The 

 ommendation may be understood 

 by considering the faci that, although the War 

 has charge ol important educational institu- 

 tions like Woolwich and Sandhurst, the examina- 

 tions for admission to whieh directly affect the 

 curricula of our secondary schools, it has nevet 

 called to its aid the services ol an officer — civil 01 

 military with such special qualifications, although 

 an excellent precedent was provided bj the Ad- 

 miralty in the appointment in 1903 of Sir Alfred 

 Ewing .is Dire< tor '.1 Vu al E dui ation. 



The education of Army officers was presumably 

 not r< the Committei as coming within 



its terms .. "adult" being interpreted 



to mean the man in the ranks rather than the 

 officer. Bui the Committee lias formed a concep- 

 tion of the Army, Navy, and Air Force ol the 

 future as great training colleges for the nation; 

 and for this advance the countr) should be grate- 

 ful. Due recognition r iven in the report 

 to thi oi the Y.M.C.A. 

 for the British Army, and the corresponding work 

 in the Canadian and Nev Zealand Armies. In 

 view ianged milita n condil ions and the 

 fact that the principal reforms advocated in the 

 report have already been carried oul bj the War 

 not much mati rial in the report 

 ii ism ; but we may express the 

 earnest hope thai the educational work for the 

 enlisted man, which has been started with so much 

 energy and enthusiasm, will he wisely organised 

 and developed. 



NO. 2573, VOL. I02] 



question of the selection, education, and 

 g ol the offii ers of the post-bellum Army, 

 si ., eel) less aid important, has appar- 



ent U not 3 et ret 1 tl ion. Mr. 



Winston Churchill's appointmei a Secretary for 

 War, following close illusion of 



hostilitii s, suggests thai the time Iris arrived for a 

 frank discussion ol the whole subject. The 

 "modern eye" which he cla ms I possess should 

 find useful work in exploring some of the dark 

 places of the office over which he 1- now called 

 upi mi to preside. 



We approach the question with a deep 1 nsi oi 

 obligation to the thousands of brave men who have 

 lost their lives through the educational and scien- 

 tific deficiencies of our military machine. The 

 Expeditionary Force, of the old Regular Army was 

 a well-organised and efficient engine of war, whit h 

 achieved a magnificent record in the early months 

 ol the war by its heroism and devotion to duty, 

 its high standard of discipline, and its excellent 

 Staff work. Consummate skill was shown in its 

 transportation overseas and its supply services. 

 Nevertheless, the conclusion to be drawn from the 

 later history of the war is irresistible. The educa- 

 tion and training of the average \rmy officer were 

 shown to be defective, through his inability to 

 adapt himself to new conditions and to solve the 

 difficult problems which the development of the 

 war presented in bewildering number and variety. 

 An officer who has spent more than three years on 

 ai tive service at the front has given it as his con- 

 sidered opinion that, of the daily problems con- 

 fronting the regimental officer, more than 99 per 

 cent, required brains rather than courage for their 

 solution, and were solved or left unsolved 

 ding as the officer had received preliminary 

 training and possessed the necessary natural 

 ability. 



War's arbitrament has finally destroyed the 

 cherished idea that "brains " and "bravery " are 

 mutually exclusive. The distinctions obtained by 

 university-trained officers in the war are conclusive 

 evidence on this point. In the case of one uni- 

 versity O.T.C., four out of five V.C.'s were ob- 

 tained by officers who had taken the university 

 degree or its equivalent, fhe si holar-soldier is not 

 ntradiction in terms. Mental training develops 

 personality. "I don't like work — no man does," 

 Joseph Conrad, "but I like what is in 

 work — the chance to find oneself." We must bear 

 these facts in mind in considering the pre-war 

 policy as regards the seleeti >n and training of 

 3 for the Army. Whether 1'arliamcnt or the 

 War Office was mainly responsible' we- are not in a 

 position to determine, but it is undoubtedly a fact 

 thai commissioned service in the Army was re- 



c c 



