SUBALTERN OFFICERS. 
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the chief share of the work, and the whole burden of the responsibility, 
fall to the'commanding officer.* Aided by his staff-sergeants, who in 
a battery correspond to the adjutant and quarter-master of a regiment, 
he arranges daily for the drill, training and instruction of the men, and 
carries on the whole work connected with their pay, clothing, and 
general welfare, without any reference to the officers commanding 
divisions. In almost all the batteries of the regiment, the sergeant- 
major is the right hand man of the commanding officer, and it is to him 
that he looks, rather than to his divisional officers, for the execution of 
his instructions. If they are present the subaltern officers attend 
parades and mid-day stables, but the work of the battery goes on quite 
irrespective of whether they are present, or absent on leave.f They 
cannot therefore be said to command their divisions. 
Their role is rather to preserve order and discipline; and see that 
the work is properly carried out, than do any actual work themselves. 
Their functions are those of policemen, rather than of instructors and 
commanders. The principle that all orders from a superior should be 
transmitted through the proper channel, and that no orders should ever 
be given over the head of a subordinate, is rarely observed in the lower 
ranks of the regiment. Yet the principle is considered of vital 
importance in the German army, is jealously regarded by the junior 
regimental officers, and is uniformly and consistently enforced through¬ 
out all ranks. We have, too, in the regiment a system of working by 
means of “ Orderly Officers,” which it must be acknowledged is 
incompatible with the proper decentralisation of responsibility—the 
essential condition of which is, not only that everyone shall have his 
own separate charge, and be entirely answerable for that charge, but 
that he shall also perform the daily duties connected with that charge. 
An orderly officer is detailed weekly or daily for battery duty. If he 
only performed purely orderly work such as guard mounting*, collecting 
and making reports, and other similar routine duties, there would be no 
objection to raise to his office. But the custom has grown up of the 
* May we not look forward to the day when, this term, “ commanding officer,”—the 
symbol of centralisation—shall be erased from our military vocabulary, and when the 
word “ commander ” shall be substituted in its place? we shall then speak of “brigade 
commander,” “battery commander,” “divisional commander” and “ sub.-divisional 
commander.” In a thoroughly decentralised military organisation, like that of the 
German Empire, every one is the commander of somebody from the general down to the 
private soldier. Before this hope, however, can be realised we must get rid of the notion 
that it is possible to fix a “ unit,” where for tactical and administrative purposes decentra¬ 
lisation must cease, and centralisation begin. Decentralisation should be continued down 
to the individual. This is the great lesson to be learnt from modern battles, and at the 
risk of repetition, we cannot too often impress it upon our minds. “ What we really 
require ”—wrote Bt. Major Maurice in allusion to this question of “ units ”—“ is that each 
body shall be so perfectly built into every other that at each successive stage of the 
building a perfect unit shall be formed. A brick is not less complete because it is arranged 
in a course, or a course less regular because it is built into a wall: nor does a wall less 
perform the special part assigned to it because it forms one of the sides of a hou.;e.” 
f They are thus placed in an absolutely irresponsible position. Can we wonder if under „ 
this system subaltern officers endeavour to get as much leave, and do as little work as 
possible? It is only when a man finds that his labours are really necessary, and cannot be 
neglected, that he will devote his whole energies to his work. 
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