· THE CHINA MAIL, NOVEMBER 9, 1940.
THE MAKING OF A BRITISH ARMY
AFTER THE COLLAPSE of France and the withdrawal of our forces from Flanders, the enemy continually proclaimed his intention of invading Britain. He used, as is his custom, all manner of loud threats and boastings. But even if he had put the matter more quietly and had acted with a sob- riety of which he is incapable, the main character of his intention would have been beyond doubt. meant to invade.
He
ARMY CAPTAIN CASHIERED
ered from the Army was promul- gated on Captain Alfred Lionel Duke of Cornwall's Light Infan- Haughton, aged forty-six, of the try, who was found guilty at a Chelsea court-martial of sixteen charges relating to cheques.
The sentence that he be cashi-
Giving evidence at the court- martial, he pleaded that he had No doubt he still is watching an opportunity to
been more of a fool than knave. do so, and has a plan of preparation in mind which gacy and said that he had reason- He had expectations from a le- includes the “war of nerves" now in progress. Butable grounds for supposing that at any rate some little time ago he announced an at least temporary change of plan and the postpone-varying from £14 5s. 6d. to 12s. ment of what he well called "the difficult task of disembarking troops."
Lack Of Repose
It is perhaps the only case in the were turned and the cohesion of 200 years of its history where the the whole force was lost. Prussian General Staff has used meiosis, For the moment, there- fore, the war is a war of attrition from the enemy's point of view, while from our point of view all is directed towards the ceaseless growth of our armed forces.
Defence And Offence
the cheques would be met.
The cheques were for amounts
B.F.R.D.C. GRANTS
The Board of Administrators (4) The fourth numbers tells has had special ef-he following grants: (1)
way in which of the B.FR.D.C. have approved fect upon the present campaign.
То Canton Y.W.C.A. (three months' It lies in the
to factor of repose. grant-November
January, Superior numbers can rely upon.
1941 at Hong Kong $700, a month), the constant appearance of fresh in connection with their relief troops to strike again and again work in the Chungshan D'strict, opposed to them. in the de-at the worn-out inferior numbers in Ngan Hang and Tsui Hang,
repose which
It was lack of and in Macao. more than
(2) For other
the Swabue-Hoifung adverse factors (such as a greatly
Districts. Drugs to the value of inferior air force, the surprise Hong Kong $1300.. and the sum of upon the lower Meuse, etc.) de- Hong Kong $500 cided the result.
cash for the purchase of further drugs. Che- ques have been sent to the Foreien Auxiliary to the National Red Cross Society of China for the above purposes.
The present phase velopment of this war is, then, for us the making for Britain of an army by land and air sufficient both for defence and offence. The latter purpose is the less appre- ciated. The necessity for defence against invasion is fully appre- ciated, but the necessity for a mobile striking force at the dis- posal of our sea-power is less un-in, derstood for two reasons. First because it is of a secondary char- acter (sea power and island de- fence coming first), next because in the earlier phases of the war expeditionary efforts falled.
Numbers, then, being of such capital importance, every effort is made to secure advantage there-
Under the old dynastic wars tion, numbers previous to the French Revolu- upon the financial power of bel- depended mainly ligerent governments to hire mer- cenary troops. Thus Louis XIV could equip armies prodigious in size by the standards of his time, because he commanded a very large and
JACK COOGAN, FLYING INSTRUCTOR
Jackie Coogan, the film actor; has announced his departure for Canada to become a flying in- structor at an army training united national re-school, t
Now it is surely of the first im- portance that we should not allow the earlier phases of the war to distort our judgment upon its venue.
He will retain American citi- later phases. In the earlier phases After the French Revolution zenship.. He will not be an officer, the country was occupied in act-there appeared the new principle but is an experienced pilot. · ing against great odds without of universal and compulsory any adequate instrument for ac-service, and the revolutionary tion. But in the later phases it armies began at iast to turn the that is "Trames," And this French will be occupied, when it possesses tide in their own favour by the term has been adopted in English a military instrument sufficient numerical superiority thus ob-military phraseology. The first for the task, with offensives attained. points the choice between which Their troops, unit for unit, were is given it by British supremacy not the equals of the old pro- fessional armies they had to meet, Their insufficient morale compell- ed them to adopt open order. But they won because they were con- inually more and more numer ous. At last their victories, bred he tradition of success which was the driving power of the sub-the French revolutionary armies sequent Napoleonic campaigns.
at sea.
There are three conditions for the making of any army adequate to any particular task, First numbers, second training, and thirdly the transformation of what begins as a mere mass of armed men into a highly differentiated organism. Numbers have always been and still are decisive; by which is meant. not that, numbers create victory by total superiority but that:superior, numbers, at 'the de- cisive place and time create vic- tories-
Make Buick Sedan
USED CARS
Model Milca
Page
1935 38847
Reg. No.
5286
Price
$2,400
Morris 10 Saloon
1934
$35593
6067.
$.900
Humber 12 Saloon
1934 32420
54
$1,000
Singer 11 Saloon
.1935
31864.
3615
$1,400
Studebaker Champion Sedan
Studebaker Champion Coupe
1940
2392
309
$3,900
1940
1543
**6417
$4,200
Vauxhall, 14 Saloon.
1934
35213
-3202
$1,300
Studebaker Sedan
1936
16887
79
$1,750
ALL CARS SERVICED THE SAME AS
FOR NEW CARS ADDITIONALLY
ALL UNITS OF $1,500 AND OVER IN VALUE CARRY THE HONG KONG HOTEL GARAGE
GUARANTEE FOR THREE MONTHS.
INSPECTION AND TRIAL INVITED..
HONG KONG HOTEL GARAGE
STUBBS ROAD.
PHONES 27778-9
GEO. FALCONER & CO., LTD.
UNION BLDG. OPP. G.P.O. EST. 1855
Specialists in
Repairing Watches, Clocks, Chronometers Binoculars and Technical Instruments. All repairs are carried through in our own workshop under European Supervision.
PENINSULA HOTEL
POPULAR
SUNDAY TEA DANCES.
IN THE
ROSE ROOM
1
5 PM. TILL 7 P:M.
ART
CARNEIRO
AND HIS SWING ORCHESTRA
question you ask about a new army is "What are its cadres? What are the numbers and the quality of its officers and N.C.Os?" It has been noted of the Soviet collapse after the battle of War- saw twenty years ago that absence of proper cadres account- ed for nearly all that followed, There was a similar difficulty with ODJEZDZOOD-SEISORDENANGG
the
after 1792. The French-met it by very rapid promotion and were Element Of Time fortunate in a temperament which could take full advantage of such This provision of numbers in exceptional conditions.
Some of a society not hitherto conscript- their greatest generals reached cd, the introduction of conscripthe height of fame in their late tion, and obtaining the maxi. twenties or early thirties: Napo mum effect of numbers through leon himself conducted his startl- How Numbers Tell It takes time.
ing "Campaign of Italy" in his Then as to training. A body twenty-seventh year. Numerical superiority. at such | of untrained men is useless. Men But even under such abnormal a point works in four ways: must not only be provided with conditions (and they do not recur (1). It works most obviously by special arms, but must acquire by half a dozen times in history) the mere mass, but that is a primitive constant usage and répétition an making of cadres takes time. way of looking at the business. Instinctive familiarity with such The whole test of skill in military arms. That is a truth more vital
A Full Army operation is the power of so using.to-day than ever it has boen in
THE HONG KONG & SHANGHAI HOTELS, LTD.
ACT NOW
In response to numerous requests The South China Morning Post, Limited, invites sub- scription to
ASSIST A FUND TO
forces that numerical inferiority the past. It was a much simpler Since Britain is now occupied BRITAIN'S WAR EFFORT
may be more than counterbalan- business, and shorter one, to in the making of a full army, ced by surprise, rapidity ond produce ifèmen for whom the (of which the capital element is position.
use of a rifle had become a com- an indefinitely expanding air for (2) The second way in which mon habit, than to produce gun-co) we are wholly bound with numbers tell is by manoeuvréners or cavalry; but in all times, the factor of time. We are wholly Take the case of "outflanking" and never more than in our own, subject to it and we cannot es or "turning." · "A hundred and seme interval of training between cape it, whether for the provision twenty men being pitted against the mere raising of the numbers of adequate numbers or for train $100, the attacking force can hold and their use. In-action was in the defensive by detailing 100 evitable. In other words, train men to act against it and using its ing takes time.
:
20
A Net Of Command":
The whole of the money subscribed will be handed to The Goverment of Hong Kong for transmission to.
Ing or for organic transformation from a mere mass into a living army; the whole affair demands time. An army already in being For the Purchase of Aeroplanes or such upon an adequate scale when war breaks out has had the effect of other Armaments as the British Government time behind it, but an army which | · has to be created while war is actually in progress demands ex- ceptional, qualities in the civilian
the burden of delay..........
demanded is patience or, to give
THE BRITISH GOVERNMENT
population to make them endure
Clearly the chief quality here
may decide.
Donations will be received by The South China Morning Post. Cheques should be made payable to "War Fund-
|--South Ching- Morning Post, Limited."
20 per cent. majority of reserve The third stage in the making power to appear upon the flank of an army is the turning of an of the opposing line, or to curl inorganic mass into an organic round it..
whole. An army-is an organism. (3) Numbers may be decisive and what makes an army organie during an extension of line. This is not only differential function is largely what happened upon the between its various parts but the Somme in the operations which hierarchy of command.. opened the recent French defeat. To defend a very long line (rea- ching all the way from the mouth of the Somme to the upper Meuse, There must be present every-It a more heartening name, a length of line imposed upon the where, holding the army together, tenacity. We are fortunate in French by the very great | a. series of subordinates and that the enemy hecompanies his superiority in number of the superiors from the corporal to the virtue of minute preparation with Germans) the French-stretched Commander-in-Chief. This net of the voice of long déloya, in- out their divisions until gaps ap- command forms the framework separable from such a virtue. All peared between them of which the without which an army is not an Thore has been time to provide a ever increasing enemy - reinforce-army at all. Because it is a defensive. There will presumably ment could take its choice. In a framework the French gave it be time to provide the striking short-time the isolated, fragments:| originally, the title of ""'endress force of the future.
donations will be acknowledged in the
columns of The S. C. M. Post.
No comments yet.
Private notes are available after approval.