380 
SUBALTERN OFFICERS. 
mess, especially be good sportsmen, and that they should at the 
same time perform with the utmost regularity certain routine work 
when they are “ on duty/'’ This work consists chiefly in mounting 
guards, visiting sentries, going round barrack rooms, and inquiring- 
after complaints. Is it to be expected that an English gentleman of 
culture and education will throw himself, heart and soul, into work of 
this description ? However high his aspirations, however energetic he 
may be, however willing to work, it is simply impossible for a subaltern 
officer to find sufficient in his daily regimental duty to absorb his 
interest and occupy his attention. He will inevitably look outside his 
regiment for employment and for amusement; and in course of time 
his profession will appear to him as of only secondary importance in 
his life. How can this be otherwise ? Ho one will go on for long 
performing mechanical work with undiminished energy and unflagging 
zeal. If you want to get work out of a man give him responsibility : 
give him power. Encourage him to assume authority, to exercise 
discretion, to trust to his own judgment rather than to rely always upon 
that of others. Above all bring him constantly face to face with the 
difficulties of an independent position. Make him feel that that 
position is a reality, and that upon his zeal and devotion to his work 
will depend the welfare of those under him. You will surely succeed 
in putting him on his metal, and in rousing him to a sense of his high 
responsibilities. He will cease to regard his duty as something which 
he must grind through as best he can, but will look upon it as pleasant 
and congenial work to be done for its own sake, and for the results 
which are produced. This is the spirit in which German officers are 
trained and are taught to train their men. It is the consciousness of 
the reality of their work which gives them strength, day after day, to 
perform duties which to English officers would seem irksome and 
unnecessary. “Hot in any spirit of pedanty, not with any striving 
after mere effect, is this system carried out. The one thought, the one 
wish in the mind of the captain, in the mind of every German officer, 
is to do in peace only that which prepares a man for actual war 
service/'’* 
8. Our own regimental organization is based upon the same system of 
centralisation which has been described above as existing in the Cavalry 
and Infantry of the Line. Ho one, who understands the interior 
economy of a battery of Artillery, can surely fail to be struck with the 
inordinate amount of work done by the commanding officer compared 
with that done by the other officers of the battery. The captain has 
no responsibility whatever, the lieutenants have only a nominal one. 
In theory, a lieutenant is supposed to command his division, but in 
practice how often is this so ? If we analysed the daily life of a 
subaltern officer of Artillery, we should find that in the great majority 
of cases his duties dwindled down to those of mere cursory supervision. 
As in a regiment of Cavalry or Infantry, so in a battery of Artillery, 
* “ The spirit of the military training in the German Army,” by Lient.-Colonel 
L. A. Hale, R.E. Macmillan’s Magazine, May, 1878. 
