The general staff, in short, is the brain, and something more than the brain, of the army.
"Its chief and his 200 officers prepare beforehand for all probable campaigns; they follow the progress of the armies of their neighbours at the same time that they study the several theatres of war; they work out together the methods of war; they familiarize themselves with the machinery of the army, bringing their influence to bear upon all questions of organization and training; they form an organism whose arteries spread all through the army, gathering practical experience and carrying wherever they go the same continuous stream of principles and of doctrines."[[3]]
[[1]] See the king's letters to Moltke of Oct. 28, 1870: "Ihrer ... weisen Führung der Operationen," and of March 22, 1871: "Die unübertreffliche Leitung der Kriegsoperationen." Moltke, Gesammelte Schriften, i., 268, 9.
[[2]] The function of the military administrator is to transform into military force so much of the resources of the State as the Government thinks proper. The process is continuous, and goes on during war as well as during peace. In Prussia it is conducted by the ministry of war, the channel or instrument by which the resources of the country are rendered available for employment against the enemy. Cp. p. 61.
[[3]] Revue militaire de l'Étranger, vol. xxxii. p. 261.
THE END.
Butler & Tanner, The Selwood Printing Works, Frome, and London.
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THE GREAT ALTERNATIVE: