mx IV M WITHIN OFPK 1ST THE GERMAN ARMY FROM WITHIN THE GERMAN ARMY FROM WITHIN BY A BRITISH OFFICER WHO HAS SERVED IN IT " The leaders must be definitely educated for that war on the great scale which some day will have to be fought to a finish. The paths we have hitherto followed do not lead to that goal." — Friedrich von Bernhardi. ttefiqjkp cdicuv HODDER AND STOUGHTON LONDON NEW YORK TORONTO MCMXIV l* CONTENTS 1. Introductory .... PAOB . 9 2. In the Cadet College . . 26 3. The Officer at Work and Play . 46 4. The Non-coms. .... . 67 5. Married Life in a German Garrison . 73 6. The Training of Recruits . 81 7. m n h (contd.) . 92 8. Uniforms and Badges . . 107 9. Transport and Manoeuvres . 114 10. General Staff .... . 138 11. The Secret Service . 143 12. The War Lord and his Entourage . . 154 13. „ „ „ „ (contd.) . 162 14. Random Recollections . . 172 15. Conclusion .... . 180 2i)3v68 INTRODUCTORY TTTHEN, during the Boxer Campaign in China, " the Kaiser sent to his troops at the front the message which has lately put a girdle round about the globe — " Make for yourselves reputa- tions like the Huns of Attila ! " — he was not merely sending them a watchword for that campaign : he was expressing the spirit that animates to-day the Army of Germany. Put into other words, it is : " Win ! Honestly, if you can, but . . . WIN ! " For the German Army has been builded with one aim : a world-war. In that war they must be victorious, or ... " Our next war," said the cynical Bernhardi, writing in 1911, " will be fought for the highest interests of our country and of mankind. World-power or Downfall ! must be our rallying-cry." Some years ago, in a book published under my own name, I pointed out the direction that that war must take. Teuton and Slav have for some time past been pressing slowly southward, as rivals, each keenly conscious of the other's aims. 9 10 "•' INTRODUCTORY The movement was scarcely realised by the States of Western Europe, notably Great Britain, though its tendency was clearly defined, and, on the Teuton side, it received an impetus from a people who were half Slav, namely, the Prussians. It was the more slow, perhaps, because racial impulse has been curbed by the subtle arts of diplomacy, by the science of strategy, and by a keen realisation of economic necessities. Each of these three factors has its victories to record, acts which, to most people, seemed but loose links in the chain of history, rather than firm steps towards the goal, distant but clearly seen by those who led the movement. The science of strategy brought Schleswig-Holstein into the German Union, welded the German States together, and extended their line of outposts to the Vosges mountains. Diplo- macy, following victory in the field, made of the German States an Empire, reconciled Austria, and forced Italy into the triple alliance. Diplomacy again brought Heligoland as an outpost in the sea to Germany, and political economy endeavoured to bring Holland into the German Zollverein. Thus the right flank of the Teuton movement from the Baltic to the Balkans was fully secured. Neither was the left flank neglected. Wedged in between the Balkan kingdoms and Russia was Roumania. INTRODUCTORY n A Hohenzollern was placed on its throne, and all who know Roumania will realise that Austria is paramount there. In both Servia and Bulgaria la haute finance was in Austrian hands, and German commercial enterprise was extending into Asia Minor. When the Teuton nations moved, so many centuries ago, a world-wide Empire fell in ruins, an Empire glutted with wealth, yet teeming with a pauper population in its capital, luxurious, enervated, disdaining any service to its country, unconscious of any obligations in return for the privilege of citizenship. So Rome fell before the Teuton, before the pressure of a Volkerwanderung. Now again the Teuton is moving. Certainly, war was inevitable. Germany had suffered too long from lack of colonies. The rapidly increasing industrial population had demanded in- sistently some new outlet for its energies and some more productive fields of labour. Scattered in every country of the world were the best German intellect and labour — engineers, scientists, sur- veyors, and so forth — working for the peoples of other countries because their own offered no scope and possessed no colonies where fresh opportunity might be found. Expansion became imperative. But a reason had to be given, for, as Bismarck had I 12 INTRODUCTORY told his country : " Even victorious wars can only be justified when they are forced upon a nation, and we cannot see the cards held by Providence so closely as to anticipate the historical develop- ment by personal calculation." The assassination of the Archduke Franz Ferdinand and his Consort provided a cause, and the act of one fanatic gave the impetus to the avalanche which descended upon Europe ; justi- fied the rapine and pillage of the little peoples. Germany, putting her whole trust in her military organisation, challenged the world to mortal combat. The hands and brains of the greatest in the Empire had long been given to the laborious per- fecting of that imposing machine. It seemed to be polished to the last inch. The moment clearly was ordained by Providence ; so, the button was pressed and the mighty levers were started. This is not the time for drawing conclusions. The fortunes of war are proverbially uncertain, and the sagest prophet would hesitate before predicting that World-power or Downfall will be the ultimate destiny of the Teuton. All I propose to do in this book is to take the machine to pieces for you, and show you how it works. Magnificent as the machine is — and it is ten times nearer perfection than INTRODUCTORY 13 that which faced France in the 'seventies — it must be remembered that the France that fights to-day is not the effete nation that it then was. By all the laws of theory Germany is bound to conquer ; but Theory is a poor military leader, and woe to those who place reliance on a semblance of power or an under-estimation of the opposing forces. By the time these pages can appear in print, the Army will probably have been brought under the microscope of the world. Until to-day it has been universally recognised as the most marvellous machine ever constructed by the mind and the sinew of man. The Kaiser has given his whole personal energy and the blood and youth of the nation to the building of this machine. Naturally, by such tremendous effort he has achieved his aim. If you give your whole body and soul to " getting on," of course you do get on, but at the expense of every one of the finer qualities of humanity. It is just these finer individual qualities, or the lack of them, that make a nation great or mean, en- during or ephemeral. And ... a machine is only as strong as its weakest part. . . . In regard to military matters the German axiom seems to be that the greatness of an army lies with its directors. The British axiom is that the great- ness of an army lies with its men. I speak with 14 INTRODUCTORY knowledge of both English and German soldiers — privates, non-coms., and officers of rank — and I am firmly convinced that one British Tommy is the equal of three Germans of the same rank. Certain proof of this has already been shown by the lack of initiative on the part of the German rank and file and the extraordinary absence of control on the part of the officers. In the attack on Liege, again and again the German lines wavered and broke, and were driven on to destruction by the swords of their superiors. And again, in the Heligoland action, when every chance was gone, and the boat was settling down, the men made for the water, and were fired upon by their officers. These are only two of many examples. Ob- viously, if things of this sort are going on, there is something wildly wrong with the system of train- ing, with the officers, and with the general morale of the service. One important defect is that no chance is given to the men to display initiative. The German character is at no time quick in this direction, and the little that a man may possess when he enters the Army is studiously squeezed out of him. On no account may he act and think for himself. He is simply there to do as he is told ; whether he understands the motive of this or that operation is of no consequence. If his officers are INTRODUCTORY 15 shot down, and there is none to tell him what to do, or when to do it, or how, the result is dismay and confusion. Yet, only five years ago, Bernhardi was insisting, without result, on the urgent necessity for increased individualisation. " Wherever," he says, " we turn our eyes to the wide sphere of modern war- fare, we encounter the necessity for independent action — by the private soldier in the thick of the battle, or the lonely patrol in the midst of the enemy's country, as much as by the leader of an army who handles huge hosts. In battle, as well as in operations, the requisite uniformity of action can only be attained at the present time by inde- pendent co-operation of all in accordance with the fixed general scheme.' ' But undue importance is still attached to the march past as a method of education, and drilling in close formation is still practised. The cavalry still perform the same traditional exercises on the parade grounds, exercises which are of no practical value and which inflict a severe strain on the strength of the horses engaged. The artillery, too, is much given to stale technicalities, circus tricks, and so on, and to adherence to conservative notions of artillery operations ; and, though the War Cabinet has again and again been urged by its critics not to 16 INTRODUCTORY continue to restrict the independence of the sub- ordinate for the sake of making a pretty show, the old methods are still in practice. Only three years ago the military expert of 44 The Times " was expressing the opinion that the German Army appeared to him to be living on a glorious past and to be unequal to the repute in which it is commonly held. 44 There is," he says, 44 insufficient test of the initiative of commanders of any units, large or small. There is nothing in the higher leading at manoeuvres of a distinguished character, and mistakes are committed which tend to shake the confidence of foreign spectators in the reputation of the command. 44 The Infantry lacked dash, displayed no knowledge of the use of ground, entrenched themselves badly, were extremely slow in their movements, offered vulnerable targets at medium ranges, ignored the service of security, performed the approach marches in old-time manner, were not trained to understand the connection between fire and movement, and seemed totally unaware of the effect of modern fire. The Cavalry drilled well and showed some beautifully trained horses, while the Cavalry of the Guard was well handled INTRODUCTORY 17 from the Army point of view ; but the arm was in many ways exceedingly old-fashioned, the scouting was bad, and mistakes were made of which our Yeomanry would be ashamed. The Artillery, with its out-of-date materiel and slow and ineffective methods of fire, appeared so inferior that it can have no pretensions to measure itself against the French on anything approaching level terms. Finally, the dirigibles and aeroplanes presented the fourth arm in a relatively unfavourable light." He goes on to say that the German Army, apart from its numbers, confidence in itself, and high state of organisation, does not present any signs of superiority over the best foreign models, and in some ways hardly rises above the level of the second-rate. He, too, shares my opinion that it has trained itself stale, and makes the suggestion which has been made by many others, a suggestion with which I entirely agree, namely, that the only way in which to re-vitalise the Army would be to disband it for a year in order to give everyone in it, from the highest to the lowest, a much- needed rest. Every hour of every day in every year the men are doing the same thing with cease- less concentration, and officers who have to wait 18 INTRODUCTORY perhaps fifteen years for a company are worn-out long before their chance comes. He says, also, what I have said in another chapter, that the military spirit of the country is slowly but surely evaporating, and to-day the consuming passion is all the time for shekels. So the wheels of the great machine have been turning and turning, revolving experimentally, at full force, but grinding nothing, with the result, now that something is ready to be ground, that the wheels have become weary by their ceaseless revolutions. The Army to-day is constituted as follows : The Kaiser is General-in-Chief, and under him — shall I say very much under him ? — is an Imperial Staff and a War Cabinet. There is a War Minister, appointed by His Majesty, but he is responsible to no one but his Emperor, and, though he sits in the Reichstag, whatever criticism may there be levelled at him, is of little moment. They still debate and debate in the Reichstag about war contributions, even as in Regensburg, but the practical effect is small. Supreme command is vested in the Kaiser, who may mobilise or dislocate the troops as he thinks fit, who may declare war or peace, and appoint, as he pleases, officers of the Army and personally receive their oath. INTRODUCTORY 19 Every able-bodied male of the Empire is liable for military service for a period of one, two, or three years. If he can pass the one-year volunteer exam, he serves only one year ; otherwise he serves two years with the infantry or artillery or three with cavalry or horse artillery. The command of the Army proper is nominally in the hands of Prince Albert of Prussia. There is a surveying and map -making staff, whose duty it is to collect topographical information concerning the countries with whom war is a possibility ; there is a superintendent of military marching ; there is an Inspector-General of Fortresses ; and there is an Inspector-General for the 1st, 2nd, 9th, 10th, and 17th Army Corps, which centres in Berlin ; other inspectors for Army Corps have centres in the States of Saxony, Hanover, Bavaria, and Carlsruhe. There is also a Railway Staff. Most of the rail- ways of the Empire are State-governed, and a carefully trained staff superintends railway mobili- sation. All mobilisation plans are modified every year, in order to ensure secrecy, and only the adjutants and colonels of regiments know anything of the plans of this staff. The system is divided into nineteen Army Corps, situated as follows : — 20 INTRODUCTORY Corps. District. Headquarters. 1 East Prussia Konigsberg. 2 Pomerania Stettin. 3 Brandenburg Berlin. 4 Saxony Magdeburg. 5 Posen and Liegnitz Posen. 6 Breslau and Oppeln Breslau. 7 Westphalia Miinster. 8 Prussia, Prussian Rhine- land Coblenz. 9 Schleswig-Holstein Altona. 10 Hanover Hanover. 11 Cassel Cassel. 12 Bautzen Dresden. 13 Wurtemberg Stuttgart. 14 Baden and Upper Alsace. Carlsruhe. 15 Lower Alsace. Strasburg. 16 Lorraine. Metz. 17 Western Prussia. Dantzig. 18 Wiesbaden and Hesse. Frankfort. 19 Chemnitz. Dresden. The Bavarian Army is quite distinct, consisting of three Army Corps, with headquarters at Niirn- berg, Wiirtzburg, and Munich. Commandants of the German Army are stationed, so far as the more important are concerned, at the following towns : INTRODUCTORY 21 Altona, Berlin, Bitsch, Boyen, Breslau, Carlsruhe, Coblenz, Cologne, Cuxhaven, Dantzig, Darmstadt, Dresden, Frankfort, Friedrichsort, Geestemunde, Germersheim, Glatz, Glogau, Graudenz, Heligo- land, Ingolstadt, Kiel, Kiistrin, Konigsberg, Magde- burg, Mayence, Metz, Munich, Neuf-Brisac, Pillau, Posen, Potsdam, Schwerin, Spandau, Strasburg, Stuttgart, Sweinemunde, Thionville, Thorn, Ulm, Wesel, and Wilhelmshaven. Of the more important fortresses, "-Mg unz^j s regarded by those who know as the most strategic point in the West of Europe. Situated on the eastern point of the Rhine, which it dominates, it commands also the natural way to the Danube, and the routes leading to the Elbe valley, to Cassel and to the Black Forest. Next comes Konigsberg on the Baltic, guarded, on its eastern side, by the Dieme Canal. Between Konigsberg and the Russian frontier is a striking natural defence in the shape of fifty miles of marsh- land. This is an advantage enjoyed by two or three others — namely, Posen, Kiistrin, and Stolpe- munde. Metz, the greatest stronghold in Alsace-Lorraine, is protected by eleven forts, and, in peace times, it is the centre of the German Army, and holds thirty -three infantry battalions, ten squadrons of 22 INTRODUCTORY cavalry, and twenty-seven batteries of artillery. Its sister -fortress, Strasburg, designed by Moltke, was considered by him to be impregnable. It is protected by fifteen forts, connected by citadel railways, and from it armies can manoeuvre east or west of the Rhine without intervention. In the matter of military aircraft Germany is severely behind France. She possesses only nine- teen classifications, rigid and non-rigid, the princi- pal headquarters being Hamburg, Dresden, Leipzig, Konigsberg, Metz, Cologne, Friedrichshaven, Treves, Posen, and Potsdam. At Thorn, Wahn, Artcherz, and Juterbock are the testing stations for shooting ; and in addition to the various Inspectors and Staffs already detailed, the War Office devotes special depart- ments to the organisation of cavalry, to the pitching of camps, to foot-marching, to light cavalry, heavy cavalry, defence of fortresses, and general engineer- ing, and — grim touch — to the equipment of a special corps of undertakers which follows the Army in the field. The standard of stature and general physique of the men is slightly lower than that obtaining in England. Since the enormous industrial expansion of the last few years there has been a still further deterioration, but the men are nevertheless well-set INTRODUCTORY 23 and sturdy, though not perhaps at any time the equal, in grit and endurance, of the Russian. To the English mind the military training and dis- cipline, of which I shall speak in a later chapter, will probably seem of a terribly harsh character, but it is not really so harsh to those who are all their lives accustomed to discipline and command, even in the matter of crossing the public street. In the matter of armaments they carry the ordinary Mauser, steel-tube lances, and straight swords. The cuirassiers carry a distinctive sword, exclusive to themselves, called a pallasch, rather broader and longer than that used by the cavalry. (An interesting point about those amazing siege guns, of which we have heard so much, and which came into operation at Namur, is that no soldier in the German Army understands them or knows how to manipulate them. They are manned by men sent specially from Krupp's.) In equipment the German soldier mostly travels heavy, carrying^ roughly, from ninety pounds to a hundredweight when on the march. The peace footing of the Army, as ordered last year, is 670,000 privates, 110,000 non-coms., and 38,000 officers, with, roughly, another 20,000 one- year volunteers. Behind this peace Army is the reserve, formed of those who have served their 24 INTRODUCTORY required time with the colours. The infantry must serve five years and the mounted forces four years in this line. They are called up once a year for exercise, and their service is about sixty days per year. Behind these, again, is the Landwehr, the second-line reserve, which demands another five years, and, in the background, the Landsturm, consisting of men whose ages range from thirty-five to forty-five. This last line is not called upon for actual service, but they are compelled to answer periodic roll-calls. 1 In the matter of pay Germany is deplorably behind Great Britain in proper recognition of her defenders. A lieutenant receives £60 per annum, rising, after a number of years, to £85, and, later still, to £120. A captain receives from £180 to £250, and so on, in proportion. Thus it will be seen that the prospects of the young man who has to make his way are none too bright, though certainly the expenses of life in a big garrison are not so heavy as in the British Army. Roughly speaking, the young German who enters the service professionally will require about £1000 to launch himself with anything like satisfactory results. 1 At the moment of writing they have, however, been called up, and are now in the field. \ INTRODUCTORY 25 All this, however, is mere dry statistics. I hope, in the pages that follow, to put life into these facts and to show you the vast organisation at work and play, peeping into the daily life of the men with whom we are now engaged in a death-struggle. Since I am again fighting, or about to fight, for the country of my birth, I can set down clearly and dispassionately the life of the German Tommy Atkins on the drill -ground and barrack-squares and in the mess-rooms and barrack-rooms, as I knew it. I was an infinitesimally small cog-wheel in the i mechanism of the mightiest machine of destruction that the world has yet produced, and it is of my personal experience alone that I write. I conceal nothing. I exaggerate nothing. IN THE CADET COLLEGE TjlROM the official reports of atrocities com- "*" mitted by my late comrades-in-arms in Belgian towns and villages, one might draw the conclusion that the German soldier, officer and man, is badly afflicted with the Sadie tempera- ment. This, however, would be unjust. I think a truer explanation is that the common sensibilities of the German, the peasant and the cultivated man, are blunter than those of any other civilised race, and what is horror to us is mere horseplay to him. It must be admitted, however, that there are, in every line of the German Army, numbers of men who would seem to be disciples of that Marquis who made a philosophy of luxurious cruelty. The cadet and the common soldier make early ac- quaintance with this systematised brutality ; for the cadets enter the college at about twelve years of age, and the able-bodied citizen enters the ranks at twenty-one. Some official notice was taken of these methods of barbarism after the IN THE CADET COLLEGE 27 Army scandals of 1907, when, as will be remem- bered, the disclosures made by Maximilien Harden led to wholesale clearances of highly placed officers and non-coms, from the Army and the Crown Prince's entourage. One reason offered for this system is that the young soldier must be imbued with manliness ; the Army is maintained and trained solely with the idea of ruthless warfare. Rob ! Burn ! Kill ! are its mottoes, and the treatment meted out to the luckless youngster has the aim of impelling him to go and do likewise. I remember, at the time of the Boer War, experiencing surprise and regret at the extraordinary courtliness of the English towards the Boers. This was against all the precepts of the Kaiser's legions, and I con- tinued to feel surprised and to anticipate trouble for England, until I saw what splendid results had been achieved by this leniency. As a boy, I was educated partly in England and partly in Germany ; and, when twelve years old, as I was in immediate need of the sharpest disci- pline, I was placed in a German military college. I had my first taste of their quality before I had actually arrived, for I was met at the gates of the barracks by one of the senior cadets, who roughly demanded my name. I introduced myself 28 IN THE CADET COLLEGE with as respectful a bow as I could accomplish, whereupon, without any display of feeling, but rather as one who does what he considers to be his duty, he struck me across the face with a dog- chain. This was not because I was English, but because I was a new-comer ready to be broken in. The corporal of my room was one of those characterless men, very common in the Prussian service, who can only maintain discipline by force. He was, I think, the most finished bully I have ever met, and must have spent hours of his days in devising new forms of punishment. One of his favourite pastimes was to order a recruit to hold three large German dictionaries under each arm, then stand on tip-toe, bend his knees, and remain for ten or fifteen minutes in this position. When he fell he was kicked or thrashed with a foil. I may say that on the first occasion when this happened to me I dropped the diction- aries, arose, and flew at the great man's throat. The subsequent penalties which I suffered were severe, but the tormentor treated me more leniently during the rest of my stay. The other corporals were equally ruthless. Great stress was laid, in this particular college, on gym- nastics, and though we were all very keen, we were sometimes not keen enough for our instructors, IN THE CADET COLLEGE 29 and our efforts were assisted in the right Prussian way. One afternoon the sergeant-major had me at his mercy, for I was hanging by both hands from a very high horizontal bar, and could not swing up in a sufficiently agile manner. Whereupon he prodded me sharply from behind with the point of his sword, and in the moment of shock I swung back and alighted heavily on his chest. This did not gain me his favour, and the number of extra drills and gyms, which I suffered ought to have made me an all-round soldier and athlete. It was the etiquette always to stand to attention when being addressed by a corporal or senior cadet. If you wished to visit a friend in another room, it was necessary to march to the open door, knock upon it, and ask the corporal in charge of that room if you might enter. If he liked the look of you, he would permit you to enter, but if he did not, or if you were in disfavour, or he were in a bad temper, he would either push you in the face or kick you. You then stood amiably to attention, and departed. The food was neither of good quality nor suf- ficient in quantity, and as we were forced to work extremely hard, we felt the pinch. However, those of us who had little allowances from home were able to purchase small supplies in the town, of 30 IN THE CADET COLLEGE course in contravention of the regulations. As a rule, we would form a syndicate of three or four and lay in a stock of curacao, ham, sardines, and so on, which we would deposit in boxes and bury in the grounds of an adjacent park, meeting there at fixed times in order to gorge. Reveille was sounded throughout the passages at six o'clock, and our first duty, after toilet, was to clean our kit, buttons, swords, boots, etc., the juniors having to " fag " for the seniors. At seven o'clock each corporal marched his squad to the dining-room for a breakfast of very weak coffee and black bread. Then came an hour's preparation, followed by classes of instruction in all manner of subjects. At half-past ten came a break, with a sandwich, and then more study until noon. The midday hour was set aside for drill, and at one o'clock we marched again to dinner — meat, vege- tables, and black bread . . . and very little of that. The afternoon was devoted to fencing, gym- nastics, swimming, and dancing ; and at five o'clock came a little coffee and bread, and after that an hour's preparation. At eight o'clock, supper of bread and cheese, and, twice a week, a very thin beer — light lager, I imagine, heavily diluted with water. Every Saturday we were given the meal of the week which perhaps filled IN THE CADET COLLEGE 31 up the crevices left by the lack of nourishment on other days. This was a feast of dumplings, of which we were allowed to eat as many as we chose. They were good, stodgy fare, and we took every advantage of the table, until several cases of sickness occurred. Then came revelations. One small boy who became violently ill, was asked if he had eaten anything to disagree with him. Innocently he answered, " No ; only thirteen dumplings ! " That small boy is now dead in Belgium. He was Prince William von Lippe. On that occasion I had myself disposed of nine, but I attribute my escape from illness to the fact that I had a tremendous fight directly after supper with an objectionable senior, who had been making my life a misery. Discipline in matters of this kind was very strict, but at the moment of the crowning affront I forgot discipline, and, feeling full of vim, hit him violently on the nose. He squared up, and went through the windmill actions of the German boy trying to fight with his fists. Practi- cally he was asking for the best punch I could give him ; so I sent it to his address, where it arrived safely. As he went down, dozens of his set arrived on the scene, and I was marched off under escort. The result looked like being distinctly unpleasant for me, since, under the laws of etiquette, the class 32 IN THE CADET COLLEGE to which this cadet belonged had the privilege of haling me before the august presence and collec- tively thrashing me. However, the situation was saved by my corporal, who, for once, proved him- self a sport. He offered, singly, to thrash the whole of the opposing class, one by one or all at once. There was no match. Owing to the scarcity of food in dining-hall, a certain traffic was carried on surreptitiously, but one had to be very smart indeed to elude the vigilance of the officer on duty. Those who had private supplies of food in the park had sometimes gorged themselves to repletion, and were not wanting the uninteresting fare of the college. But the difficulty was to pass it to the needy, for, if the corporal spotted it, it went no further than his own plate. Many of my fellow-cadets were extremely weak in English or French, and when papers were given in these subjects, they invariably came to me. By this " ghosting " I was able to make quite a good thing in the shape of hard-boiled eggs or meat rissoles. My corporal's English exercises I was privileged to write for no reward whatever, except an occasional hammering. Cribbing, I may add, in this and all other German colleges was (and still is) carried to a high art, and very few could IN THE CADET COLLEGE 33 send in an exam, paper which was entirely their own work. Once a week we received religious instruction. I, as an English boy, was classed as a Protestant. The pastor himself was one of the most poisonous individuals I ever met. The class was so arranged that those most proficient sat at the back, the front benches being occupied by those who were short-sighted or in need of careful control. Although I was mostly second or third in my class, so far as ability went, I invariably had a front seat. For this pastor, and, indeed, for all civilian professors, we had nothing but the most profound contempt, and we displayed all the ingenuity of the budding German warrior for devising means of making him uncomfortable. This particular gentleman had, I knew, a horror of cold steel, and on one occasion, when I was called upon to recite the books of the Old Testament, I broke down completely, after making several sporting shots. This aroused in him the utmost wrath. He denounced me as a perfidious heathen, and heaped other courtesy titles upon me. When he had finished I resumed my seat, opened my clasp-knife, and stuck it sharply in the desk in front of me, so that I might, as I explained when challenged, spear on it any inconvenient questions G.A. — C 34 IN THE CADET COLLEGE that might come my way. This brought me considerable popularity . . . also several days arrest and bread and water. Three regimental officers were appointed to each college for the purpose of watching over our morals. Their post was much of a sinecure, for most of us had never had any, and those who had had mis- laid them after a few hours of cadet life. We were all very eager in acquiring the latest anecdotes about the dissipated ways of exalted officers of the garrison, and we strove, in our own poor little way, to emulate them. Those malpractices that we did not bring to college we acquired by studious admiration of the gorgeous demi-gods above us. To come back to college somewhat the worse for liquor was as high an achievement as the winning of the Iron Cross ; and the unofficial hero of the school was he who could claim the most intimate knowledge of women. There were other non- Germans in the college besides myself, and it was one of these, a Southerner, who brought glory upon us by his misdeeds. He developed degenerate traits soon after entering, and one of his really shocking offences came to headquarters. We all expected that he would be crowned with the laurels of instant expulsion ; but it was not so ; and soon we learnt the reason. The King of the IN THE CADET COLLEGE 35 country which this young man had honoured by his birth had sent urgent representations to our commanding officer, together with the Cross of a high Order, that the offender was to be allowed to remain. I remember one escapade in which I and several others took part. The little leisure that we were granted was spent in wandering in couples, arms locked, through the park which, as I have stated, was our storehouse. It was a pleasant, natural solitude, enclosed by a rustic fence, but otherwise undefaced by the hand of the gardener. Our college, of course, was a plague-spot to the fear- some gorgons who presided over the many semin- aries in the town ; and no girls were taken for walks when we were about. The park, too, was regarded as no place for them, since we had made it almost our own. But on one occasion, in summer, the head of the most select girls' school, finding the park apparently deserted, thought she might ven- ture to take her precious charges through its sylvan glades. She did so. The lambs, headed by the bell-wether, skipped into our precincts, and were about to disport themselves on the grass, when, without warning, a horde of wild cadets sprang from the bushes and surrounded them. I have seen students' rags in England, and they 36 IN THE CADET COLLEGE can hardly be described as models of gentlemanly behaviour, but they pale to insignificance before the German military cadet's transports. While the stout perspiring matron protested loudly and with a wealth of gesture, her charges were hurried off and, with arms about their escorts, were regaled with sausage, sardine, and cake. As I was but a small boy and not over-fond of girls, I and a friend volunteered to show the distressed lady the shortest way out of the park. It was not until we had dragged her three or four times up a bank of very loose sand that she noticed that the gates were as far away as ever. However, just then one of the officers on duty appeared. To him she ran and, embracing him, poured out her tale of woe, and begged him to restore to her her lost lambs. We two were im- mediately despatched to find the girls, but the orders said nothing about bringing them back. We found them right enough, and joined the various charmed circles, where laughter and feasting were proceeding. It was not until the assembly was sounded that straggling groups of giggling Frauleins and dishevelled cadets found their way out of the park. Of the general education provided by the college, apart from its system, I have nothing but praise. IN THE CADET COLLEGE 37 It was not aimed, as is the training in the Army proper, at making us only military machines. A love of literature and the drama, and the fine arts generally, was fostered ; and if any cadet showed a strong musical or artistic proclivity, he was en- couraged and allowed to practise these pursuits ; for such accomplishments permitted him to shine in society and so take the edge off what is, after all, the crudest militarism. But the general atmosphere of a German military college is nothing like that of, say, Woolwich or Sandhurst ; and a youth who had had experience of the latter would probably find our college little better than an English penal establishment. Little or nothing was done to stimulate that healthy rivalry between corps and companies that exists in England in public schools, cadet colleges, and regiments of garrisons. Rather, it is a choice of " Get on or get out by any means possible." Our academy, by the way, was not a Prussian institution, and Prussians were not welcomed there. A great number of the members were Han- overians who were then less reconciled than now to Prussian methods. The training lasted for five years, from twelve to seventeen. At seventeen you passed your exams. — or did not pass them, 38 IN THE CADET COLLEGE according to circumstances — and were drafted into the Army ... or discarded entirely. This exam, was not over-severe. One was ex- pected to know at least one foreign language — French or English. A little Latin was essential ; usually we got as far as Tacitus. Greek was not taken. Higher mathematics could be taken by any- body with a taste for them, but only those cadets specialised in them who were destined for the artillery or military engineering. I must say that, considering the determined slacking to which I devoted myself, I am surprised at the large amount of knowledge the instructors managed to impart to me. The system, therefore, must have its good points. As the final exam, approached you began to think of your prospective regiment. Having decided which corps was to be favoured by your company, it was then correct for your father or guardian to offer you to this regiment. If there were a vacancy the Colonel made careful inquiries into your past, both in regard to conduct and abilities, and if he were satisfied he accepted you. If you pass the final exam, you enter the chosen regiment as ensign — a rank corresponding to that of sergeant in our Army. Drill in the ranks follows, as with an ordinary private, and after a year of IN THE CADET COLLEGE 39 this you enter a kind of probationary stage. Throughout this period you are under the special charge of an officer, whose special duty it is to examine the Fahnenjunker under a microscope and report his observations. Always your education proceeds on social as well as military lines. You are obliged to dine at the officers' mess, so that they may judge of your skill in the matter of knife and fork and the delicate negotiation of green peas and gravy. As a rule, too, you will be put to a severe test in the matter of drinking, and you become popular or unpopular according to your ability in the matter of wielding a glass for four or five hours and remaining a gentleman. The curriculum also includes the higher arts of warfare and the subtler arts of the life of a garrison. You fight a duel or so ; you get into debt and other forms of distress ; you show that you are a man in a dozen different ways ; and you strut about the towns in the most gorgeous uniforms that ever a soldier wore. Really, the Army ought to be popular in Germany, if only for this reason : it is the only chance you have in that country of making a really picturesque appearance. The I designers of the uniforms — those of two regiments I were designed by His Imperial Majesty himself — I are real artists and their " creations " are harmonies [ 40 IN THE CADET COLLEGE of colour and, withal, aggressive. During my time as a German officer, I found that our uniform was irresistible to the girls of the town, and we often received notes from ladies of whom we had not the slightest knowledge, asking for rendezvous of the penny novelette order, namely, " You will know me quite easily. I shall be standing under a tree on the Friedrichstrasse, holding a white hand- kerchief." But, although young and fond of ad- venture, I had moments of caution, and those moments coincided with the receipt of notes such as these. After two years of this sort of thing, you sit for another exam, in order to qualify for a commission. If you pass, you return to your regiment with acting rank of sergeant-major. Your name is then brought before the officers of the regiment as can- didate for a permanent commission. The officer in charge of the ensigns reads out the reports of the examining officer and also makes up his own report. Thereupon the Colonel puts it to the officers assembled : whether they approve of this prospective brother-officer. If they do, the paper by which your fate is sealed is signed by all of them, beginning with the junior subaltern. It is then forwarded to the Highest Authority. If, however, the officers should object to you, reasons IN THE CADET COLLEGE 41 have to be plainly stated and also sent to the same Personage. The story is told of one very superior corps, whose officers, on one occasion, declined a candidate because the prefix Von was missing from his name. At once the War Lord replied that if he chose every officer in his army should be entitled to the prefix Von, whether he held it on entering or not. However, the young officer who does not carry that little addition to his name when he enters a regiment whose other members do, is likely, before very long, to be transferred — at his own request. I remember one case of a young man who was drafted into a superlatively crack regiment, where every officer had at least Von to his name, if not Von und zu. He was a smart fellow, a capable horseman and a clever soldier, but he had not been there a month before he applied for a transference. I learned that he had received very scant courtesy at the mess, and, although he was entered for that regiment at the special request of the commanding Colonel, a personal friend, even that exalted officer could not make things pleasant for him. There are other ways than those so far described of obtaining a commission. If the young man intended for the Army does not enter a military academy, he is expected to pass a very high school 42 IN THE CADET COLLEGE exam, and qualify for some University. Every young man has, of course, to become a soldier anyway, but if he decides to adopt arms as a profession, his father, while the boy is still a 'Varsity student, introduces him to the Colonel of a regiment. Generally both father and son have to attend a mess dinner, and pass through the social ordeal. If he is approved, he is allowed to join as Avantageur. He lives in barracks for a short time, as a private, but he must buy his own uniform, and, in the case of cavalry, he must pay for the hire of a mount. After a week or so he is invested with a mystic button on his collar, the badge of the Gefreiter, which absolves him from sentry-go, and gives him a rank corresponding to that of lance-corporal. Then, with other youngsters of the same status, he is allowed to live out of barracks, and has a man-servant for the cleaning of his kit and equip- ment. After autumn manoeuvres he is promoted sergeant ; and then he follows the same course as those who emerge from the military college. The officers' reserve is formed mostly from men who have passed through the ranks. In the cavalry one-third of the squadron leaves every year to take its place in the reserves ; these are privates and Gefreiter only. In the case of officers the procedure IN THE CADET COLLEGE 43 is as follows : Youngsters who have matriculated may join a regiment of their choice as one-year volunteers. They are distinguished by a black and white cord on the shoulder-strap. They, too, rise rapidly during their year in the ranks, unless they are singularly inept, and they leave after their year with the rank of acting sergeant-major. They are called up for training occasionally, and in due course, if they are thoroughly efficient and desir- able, they are qualified and are given a commission as officer in the reserve. In this capacity they serve only at odd times — mostly in the summer ; hence they get their distinguishing sobriquet — die Som- meronkels. Their presence with the regiment when training is intended to have the effect of reviving in them the true spirit of militarism which may have lost its strength and grown fusty ; and by means of this spirit it is expected that they, as business men, will carry out the high principles of Qhauvinjsm in the commercial world to the greater I glory of their native land. The mention of autumn manoeuvres reminds me of a great moment of my life when I was a wee cadet. During manoeuvres on one occasion, the cadets formed the right of the Army Corps. William I. had come down to inspect this corps, which was pitted against a Prussian Army Corps. In these 44 IN THE CADET COLLEGE manoeuvres, by the way, racial animosity was so strong that the men of both sides were charging their rifles with stones or small potatoes or any other missile they could find, in order to damage their opponents. At the end of the operations special military precautions were taken against a sudden influx of social democrats, who, it was anticipated, were bent on creating disorder ; and we cadets were told off to take our share in safeguarding the aged Kaiser, who was spending the night in the town. So, at night, I found myself in one of the main streets with a rifle many sizes too large for me, a heavy helmet, and bayonet fixed. Suddenly, down upon me swooped an immense crowd of demon- strators, socialists and royalists, in a glorious melee, and I, in spite of fixed bayonet, was tossed about from side to side like a cork in a mill-race. In the midst of my futile struggles, I perceived a tall figure approaching, wearing a field-marshal's uniform, and with a inch of red wig showing under- neath his cap. He passed close to me, and I had just room in which to use my elbows and present arms. He looked down at the small atom of warrior-to-be, and smiled kindly. It was the aged Field-Marshal von Moltke. I am sorry to say that I did not obtain my com- IN THE CADET COLLEGE 45 mission by any of the methods described, for I left the military academy long before my time was up. I found the weary hours of preparation hang very heavily on my hands, and as I knew that someone always found mischief for idle hands to do, I set myself studiously to work making carica- tures of all my superior officers in the garrison, beginning with the Commandant and working down to the senior cadets. Unfortunately, I had nearly completed my collection when my company commander came my way, spotted the drawings, and confiscated them. When I saw them again it was in the orderly room, and the Colonel was poring over them intently. The interview was brief but sufficient. He looked up. " My young friend, I believe you are intended for the British Army. Is it not so ? " I admitted it. " Then you had better take your works of art and go there at once ! " So I went. THE OFFICER AT WORK AND PLAY IV/TY career as cadet being cut short owing to a A lack of the humour sense in my com- manders, I carried my sword elsewhere. After many years, some of which were spent in India, in the cavalry, I had a mind to return to the German Army, and I therefore applied in writing to the Emperor himself, asking for a commission in the Prussian cavalry. After due and tedious inquiries had been made my request was granted, and in full measure ; for I found, to my surprise, that my commission was ante-dated by several years. This, no doubt, was a subtle appreciation of my having seen service abroad, although in a different Army. It struck me as very generous in itself, but it also had a useful purpose for the Fatherland, in that it introduced fresh blood and new ideas. The German Army at that time was never wholly averse from admitting novel methods or from learning from other military organisations, especially when experience accompanied the ex- ponent of those methods. 46 THE OFFICER AT WORK AND PLAY 47 There have always been vagrant Britons in th3 Prussian or Austrian services, and, until the Boer War broke out, they were always bien vus. Indeed, many famous generals of foreign armies were Britons. There was, for instance, the gallant Keith, a sturdy Scot, whose name is borne, in his honour, by a regiment of Prussian infantry. Again, in Vienna, amongst a galaxy of military notabilities I found a statue erected to perpetuate the glory of an Englishman bearing the plain name of Brown, who had been Count, Field-Marshal, and Lord High Everything Else in the Austrian Army. On taking up my commission I was most kindly received by my brother officers, a courtesy I was not anticipating, since I had jumped in over the heads of several of them. However, I had come by the Imperial orders, so all was well. I noticed a considerable change in the tone of the mess. It was no longer as " military " as it had been years ago when I first peeped, from the academy, into the German Army. Greater demands were made on the life of the officers, and, as many of them were sons of very wealthy manufacturers, there did not exist quite that perfect camaraderie which had been the feature of the old Prussian corps of officers. Personally, I found these wealthier men uncommonly good company, more liberal-minded 48 THE OFFICER AT WORK AND PLAY than their very noble comrades, and quite excellent and keen soldiers. Too, they had more of the sporting spirit. I was relieved to find that the mess was not beyond my means, for we lived quite simply. It was just about that time tnat the Emperor had tried to insist upon the virtues of simplicity and abstinence, so, at the mess, the officers were simple and they abstained . . . reserving their energies in the matter of extravagance for the life beyond the barrack square. The furniture of the mess-room was plain, and the food the same, though of good quality and plentiful. If I remember rightly, dinner cost but eighteen-pence, washed down with the wine of the Fatherland, which we drank not only out of patriotism, but because it was " simple " and really not bad at the price. I was a little surprised to find that whisky had become a common table decoration, together with English ale, and a drop of Scotch often went round in place of the old schnapps or curacao. Our guest -night was Wednesday, when all the officers of the regiment, married or unmarried, were expected to appear. This was generally a very cheery function, and, as related in the previous chapter, new-comers were put through a still further test in the matter of absorbing THE OFFICER AT WORK AND PLAY 49 liquor. In fact, new and old stagers were on their mettle in this respect, and curious incidents were sometimes witnessed. If a young subaltern had recently joined, the mess orderly would come round the table to the youngster with a message from the captain that the latter wished to drink with him. Whereupon the subaltern would have to rise to attention, bow, and drain his glass. The newly- joined officer must perform this ceremony with every officer present, who, each in his turn, sends him a similar message. When that is finished it is the subaltern's duty, if he is still capable, to return the compliment, with each one, beginning with the senior officer, and continuing so long as he is able to distinguish anybody. The last state of that man need not be described. In my own case I had picked up while in India a very simple method of going through these heavy drinking functions without losing my head ; but that prescription is too valuable to give away in the present pages. It is worth a book to itself. One of our great joys, on guest -nights, was to join in the band after dinner. I was unable to perform on any instrument, so I either rolled the kettle-drums or led the orchestra astray with the baton. There was a fixed scale of fines for this G.A, — D 50 THE OFFICER AT WORK AND PLAY disorder, but the fun was always worth the penalty. Those unfortunate youngsters, the Fahnen- junker, have to dine at mess every evening, unless they can provide the commanding officer with a good and satisfactory excuse. This is so that their table manners may be carefully watched and not allowed to rust or fall into disrepair, and that their thirst may be regulated, except on state occasions. Of course, their manners were, as a matter of fact, very good, as the old days are passed when, for instance, the Vienna Court etiquette forbade guests to throw their chicken bones under the table, since it made so much extra work for the servants. There are, however, several pitfalls for the new-comer, no matter how polished and well- bred he may be in the matter of general social usages. He may not, for example, begin smoking until the senior officer present has lit up. In this connection I remember once that one of the dashing young diners, finding the time between smokes hang rather heavily, sent the orderly to the senior officer with a half -burnt match as a hint. He did not remain long in that mess. Another curious point is that all " shop " of whatever kind is barred at table. When any subject of that sort is touched upon by a thoughtless youngster the senior will THE OFFICER AT WORK AND PLAY 51 give a sign to the mess-sergeant, who thereupon brings in a diminutive pair of breeches on a stand, which is placed gravely and formally before the offender. Again, unlike the English officers' mess, the German mess puts no bar on conversation touching the ladies of the garrison and their probable ethical standards, though, of course, the subject must be handled delicately lest the lady be anyone of importance or of immediate concern to some member of the company. In that case ... a duel. Duelling, by the way, is not now so prevalent as of old, and I never knew of a case in the regiment itself. Personally, I had but one experience of this pleasing pastime, and that, perhaps fortunately, fizzled out before our wigs were on the green. The occasion was a little contretemps at a club in the town. Two or three cavalry officers and myself were visiting the civil club after dinner, and were making a tour of the rooms, bearing our swords and caps in our hands, to see whether anyone of interest were there. In one room we stumbled upon a group of infantry officers playing cards. Following the sacred law of etiquette we clicked heels and bowed, and continued our tour of in- spection. Finding nothing and nobody of any interest to us we left our swords and caps and 52 THE OFFICER AT WORK AND PLAY returned to the room occupied by the card-players, without, this time, repeating the ceremony. There- upon one of the group rose and asked me who was the senior of our party. As it happened it was I. " You have omitted to bow ! " he snapped. " Well," said I, " what about it ? " or words to that effect. " The usual consequences ! " " Very well." Next morning I had, in accordance with custom, to bring the matter before the proper authorities : first, to report to my colonel and then to seek out a member of the Court of Honour of my own rank in the regiment. This Court, by the way, is elected annually by the officers themselves, and consists of a captain and two subalterns. On occasions such as this the Court has to meet and to adjudicate on given dispute, and give their verdict whether or not a duel shall be fought. Their decision is irrevocable. When I entered my colonel's orderly room, however, I found the colonel of the infantry regiment already there, and his general attitude seem to suggest extreme contrition. My colonel turned very fiercely upon me, said that he knew the errand upon which I had come, and barked at me : M We shall shoot, Herr Leutnant X . . . ? " THE OFFICER AT WORK AND PLAY 53 I bowed. " Yes, Colonel, we will ! " Thereupon the infantry colonel, and the aggrieved officers, who were waiting outside, expressed their willingness to apologise. Would we accept it ? I glanced at my colonel, and gathered from a flicker of his eye that I might, without loss of dignity to the regiment, accept. So, after seemly hesitation, I bowed once more ; the unfortunates were called in ; they clicked heels, bowed, apolo- gised in subdued tones, and were about to leave again. But my colonel interposed with a question to myself : " You are going to the mess, Herr Leutnant X . . . ?" I took the hint, and the bunch of us, infantry and cavalry officers, left together. So what threatened to be a bloodthirsty encounter ended peaceably, except that I had considerable diffi- culty that night, or, rather, early next morning, in inducing my late opponents to enter a cab. Eventually, however, I lifted them in one by one and saw them safely home, and the feeling between the two regiments was, as the tale tellers have it, happy ever afterwards. It is generally supposed, not only among the uninitiated, but even among other branches of 54 THE OFFICER AT WORK AND PLAY the service, that cavalry regiments are extremely exclusive. This, in my experience, is unfounded. Of course, you cannot, perhaps, guard yourself from swaggering in such a resplendent uniform as the German cavalry carries ; but this is the mere subtle effect of clothes on physical deportment. Dress a man up dowdily and he will walk dowdily ; dress him like Solomon or the lilies of the field and he will simply have to strut. However, there is nothing beneath that strut. One explanation of the apparent exclusiveness is that a corps of officers of a cavalry regiment is a smaller body than that of infantry of the same strength ; it is conse- quently more compact, becomes drawn together, and is inclined to find sufficient social intercourse in its own circle. In fact, it is more like a family. And in my regiment we had a good deal of family life : some of it pleasing, and much of it boring. This domesticity, however, was well meant ; and one of the features of our week was to drive out in parties, on Sunday after- noons, with the married ladies of the regiment. Arrived in the country we would split up in parties and seek refreshment at some Gasihaus in the forest. There were, of course, other less innocent amusements connected with these drives, but of these I need not speak. THE OFFICER AT WORK AND PLAY 55 When an officer felt that he must break away for a little light-hearted frolic, he generally took the precaution to divest himself of his glory and slip out in mufti. I remember a case where a brother officer of mine narrowly escaped serious trouble. He was out in mufti, and was returning through a narrow street in the town, after having had what he described as the time of his life, when, rounding a corner, he walked into the arms of his colonel. There was a moment of panic, and then, collecting himself, and apologising for the collision, he inquired : " Why, surely you are the Colonel of the ? Because I have a brother in your regiment. Give him my love, will you, and tell him I'm always so busy now I never get a chance to call on him ? " Next morning, this young man was invited to call upon the Colonel in his orderly room. " Oh, by the way," remarked The Old Man, " I only wanted to see you to say that if I meet that brother of yours in the town again I shall give you three days' rest." As I have pointed out, the enormous increase of wealth and the corresponding demands for luxuries of all kinds are not without their effects on the Army. You will find there to -day. men holding commissions who would never have had 56 THE OFFICER AT WORK AND PLAY the slightest chance of them thirty or forty years ago. In fact, the class from which they come did not then exist. I refer to the manufacturing class, which forms the real progressive class of Germany. Even under the strictest discipline, the sons of these men must retain something of the parental notions of philosophy and conduct, and their brother officers, in some regiments, are sharply on the look-out for any expression of this trait, remembering that they themselves spring from a stock which has inherited titles of nobility — and little else — for countless generations. Then again, among these latter are different grades, many of whom are not yet reconciled. You may, for example, hear an officer of very old family complain that Von So-and-so is only schwertadel, meaning that his title was gained by the sword so recently as the middle of the eighteenth century, instead of being, like himself, of the finer clay, coming of an effete and mysteriously diseased ancestry which, during its pious work in the Crusades, swapped vices with the people of the Orient. | With the admission of the wealthy burgher into the preserves of the junker came the Semite, carefully concealed by the scintillating coin which accompanied him. Whatever the faults of the German Jew may be — and they are very many — THE OFFICER AT WORK AND PLAY 57 this much may be said for him : that he is what years of oppression by the natives of his adopted country have made him. Having been prevented from exerting all the wonderful powers of his race, and from displaying that fighting capacity which distinguishes his people, it is not to be wondered at that he had recourse to other means by which to assert his rights. There is not the slightest doubt that an enormous amount of Jewish blood has found its way into the higher flights of the German nobility ; and proof of this may be found in that extremely interesting book, with the punning title, " Semi-Gotha," which was suppressed in Germany and elsewhere immediately on its appearance. Some of the Oriental traits have gone with this infusion, and have led to the inevitable and obvious results. One direct result was evidenced during the Zabern incident last year, which showed clearly the gulf that lay between the bulk of the Army and those in high places and in the favoured Corps of Guards. I found that officers of the line, mostly junker or still strong adherents of Prussian mili- tarism, were strongly agitated by the slight con- cessions and what they considered the leniency shown to the burghers of Zabern. Whereas the military cabinet, and those directly influenced by it, 58 THE OFFICER AT WORK AND PLAY the Army Corps of Guards, were inclined to take a wider view. This was naturally ascribed to Jewish influence in high quarters ! It is interesting to note that the regiment concerned in the fracas was one thoroughly soaked in the true Prussian spirit. That was withdrawn and relieved of its duties by a regiment of Saxon infantry. The Saxons are a kindlier and less agressive race than the Prussians, and Saxony itself is a largely manufacturing country. Many unkind things were said about the Saxons at this period, and the old proverb, " Saxons are always false " — originally based on Saxony's struggles to escape from her unhappy position during the Napoleonic wars — was revived — and not to the credit of the 15th Army Corps, to which both regiments be- longed. The effects of Zabern were extremely widespread, and, indeed, it may even be said to have influenced the march of events which has brought Europe into war. One of its immediate results was to emphasise everywhere the growing unpopularity of the Kaiser, and to enhance the popularity of the Crown Prince. The former is accused of being in the hands of Jew financiers ; the latter is the beau- ideal of the German military hierarchy. This state of affairs was thoroughly well understood in high THE OFFICER AT WORK AND PLAY 59 circles, of course, for nothing is unknown in a country where secret service is the most perfected of all the arts. Therefore, something had to be done. That something is going on now. But to return to the officers. As I was saying, luxury is manifesting itself in all branches of the Army, though not, in obedience to the Imperial desires, in barracks. The simple life of nut and banana in barracks. The more complex life else- where, for officers never live in barracks, but have rooms or establishments in the town. Of late years, however, an attempt was made to model the regimental mess on the British style, and, to this end, some of the officers took up quarters in barracks. An unmarried officer's quarters in the town are, according to custom, free from any assault, but they are expected to be open day and night to approved visitors. A familiar garrison -town phrase is militarfromm, amenable to military ways, which applies principally to the other sex. This open- house principle works out in ways which can barely be hinted at in such a book as this. *JED JAN 2 2 1996 Santa Cruz or LI 20,000 (4/94) 298/68 UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA LIBRARY