[[2]] Four of the German army corps—those of Saxony, Würtemberg, and Bavaria (two corps)—do not belong to the Prussian army.
PART III
THE GREAT GENERAL STAFF
CHAPTER I
AN INTELLIGENCE DEPARTMENT
The chief of the general staff of the army, assisted by the great general staff, which is his special organ, and which has its permanent abode in Berlin, is occupied during peace with preparations for the conduct of the army in war. The work undertaken with this object divides itself naturally into three branches, according as it consists in actual arrangements for particular wars regarded as probable, in the training of officers to the art of command, or in the scientific study of war as a means of forming and exercising the faculty of generalship.
The direct preparation for probable wars consists in arranging, in anticipation of each of the various possible complications, the most suitable distribution of the forces available, their concentration on the frontier, and their transport from the peace quarters to the districts selected for this purpose.[[1]] These matters require for their decision a thorough knowledge of the countries forming the theatre of war and of the armies of all the probable combatants.
The great general staff in time of peace is constantly engaged in the collection and digestion of such information. For this purpose it is organized into three divisions,[[2]] to each of which a portion of Europe is assigned. The first division deals with Sweden, Norway, Russia, Turkey, and Austria; the second with Germany, Denmark, Italy, and Switzerland; the third with the western states of Europe and with America. Of the thoroughness with which the work is done some idea may be formed by an examination of the reference index,[[3]] which was for many years (1869-1883) annually printed and published. The reader who opens one of these volumes at the chapter headed "British Empire" will find there a mass of ordered information such as is hardly anywhere else accessible. It begins with a detailed account of the progress of the Ordnance survey during the year, dealing separately with England, Scotland, and Ireland, and with the Admiralty surveys. Then under the heading land and people, comes a list of new statistical publications, an abstract of the census and of the Registrar-General's reports, and a note of any works that illustrate the subjects. Succeeding headings, worked out with great minuteness, are: constitution, administration, and finance, intellectual culture, emigration, mining, agriculture, forestry, and marine economy, industry and trade. Communications are subdivided into railways, post, telegraphs, and inland navigation. Several pages are devoted to an exhaustive catalogue of every publication issued during the year, English or foreign, bearing upon the British army, including official publications, controversial pamphlets, and magazine and newspaper articles. The navy is treated in a similar manner, though less space is devoted to it; and lastly, there is a review of all new guide-books, books of travel, and maps relating to Great Britain, especially of county guides, histories, maps and plans. The progress of the British colonies is followed in the same fashion.
The minute systematic study which is thus devoted to the resources of every European country gives a basis for judging of its fighting power far more certain than the collection of mere military statistics. For the reference index is only a groundwork upon which the military study of the countries can be founded. It is not the product of the three divisions, but of the geographical and statistical section, which belongs to the auxiliary establishment, and in this way it prepares the materials upon which the three divisions are to work.
The index is no longer given to the world; but the volumes already published are a monument of systematic research, and reveal the depth and breadth of the foundation upon which the great general staff builds, in other words, the accuracy and fulness of the knowledge at the disposal of its chief when he frames a plan of operations. It is therefore not a matter of surprise that in 1866 the chief of the Prussian general staff was well informed concerning the position and condition of every part of the Austrian army up to the time when the special preparations for the war began; was able to gauge very fairly the time that would be required for its mobilization and transport, and knew perhaps as well as any one in Austria the difficulties in which that empire would be placed by an effort to continue the struggle. A still more complete knowledge of the adversary's military and other resources was revealed by the German general staff at the opening of the campaign of 1870.
The German staff has now no longer a monopoly of these studies, as may be seen by a glance at the Revue Militaire de l'Étranger, published fortnightly (since 1872) by the second bureau of the French general staff. The intelligence division[[4]] of our own War Office performs somewhat similar duties of geographical and statistical research.