"MORAL."

THE moral of troops was pronounced by Napoleon to be three times as important as numbers. No doubt when Napoleon said that he spoke in a figure, for he was also the author of the saying that God is on the side of the big battalions. But the emphasis was deliberate ; Napoleon exaggerated in a sense because he wanted to draw attention to the enormous importance of moral. We long ago took over the word from the French, and now it is on the lips of every one. Unfortu- nately, as often as not we spell it wrong—with an "e." When the French talk of the discipline and spirit of troops they do not talk of their "morale." It would be right, however, to talk of the morale of the commercial world, meaning its character for straight-dealing. There never was a time when moral was more necessary to our soldiers than now, when they are engaged in a life-and-death struggle. Except for the Napoleonic wars, we have never engaged in a struggle comparable with the present war. And in point of the numbers which we put in the field, even the Napoleonic wars offer no comparison whatever. All other wars drew on only a small part of our man-power, and the moral of our Armies was a question for professional soldiers, not for the breakfast-table of every British household. Now men have become soldiers who have not acquired the military tradition through years spent in drinking it in. Fortunately a standard of intelligence, higher than any known in previous Armies, has helped them extraordinarily. Their spirit is mar- venous. But as no Army that ever existed reached to the full possible height of the practice of moral, so there is nothing on this subject which can be said to the present Armies that is flat and unprofitable.

There is a moral of tho men and there is a moral of the officers. The moral of the men is partly a matter of environment and of food, and partly a matter of response to wise and inspiring leadership. It might pass for being automatic. Spirits which cannot be damped, and which express themselves in songs, jokes, and laughter, even in the presence of "the Arch-Fear," seem to be the natural possession of our men. The moral of the officer is a more complicated and delicate thing to acquire, and in the most important sense it is possible that it cannot be taught. For it embodies the whole art of leadership, and every one knows that there is a certain percentage of men who could never learn to lead their fellows. They may be worthy of all respect on almost every scene, but it is not their metier to be officers, and they should not be placed in that position. There is a great number of young men, however, who may never have had the opportunity of "saying to this man, Go, and he goeth," but who now find it necessary to give orders every day. If they have the mental and social knack of leadership, it will develop itself into a power through the use and expansion of a few small hints. For nothing is more true than that the officer is tested by the way in which he says " Go " (or in the most . vital cases "Come on "), and the way in which his men respond to his orders. They will respond with speed and confidence, or with hesitation and misgiving, according as they believe in him or mistrust him. Those who arc teachable can be taught the little artifices of managing men, and it should be laid on somebody to say all that can be said usefully and practically on the subject to every youth before he is promoted to the rank of an officer.

We have before us an excellent pamphlet called Moral: the Most Important Factor in War (London : Sifton, Praed, and Co. ; 6d. net), by Lieutenant-Colonel W. Shirley, who has been an Instructor at Sandhurst, Director of Military Studies at

Cambridge, and Commandant of the 2nd .Artists' Rifles O.T.C. It is not only a well-written lecture, but is full of the right feeling. "I exhort you," he says to the budding officers, "to go forth as tho Champions of Right, not as the Avengers of Wrong. It is right to destroy wickedness, but to stoop to retaliation is to sink to the level of the malefactors we execrate. Vow to excoriate these abominations from the face of civilization even at the risk of your life, for you know 'the thing that matters is not how long life lasts but what you do with it.'" Moral forces, he goes on, are intangible, occult. They are "courage, intelli- gence, initiative, resourcefulness, training, discipline, pride, cheerfulness, temper, respect, tenacity, religion, patriotism, love, willpower." He resolutely refuses to believe that a good

officer, as a general principle, is born and not made. The fairest field will grow weeds instead of wheat if it is not cultivated, and a sterile field will grow wheat if it is cultivated. He com- plains that there is a general disinclination to discuss fear, although that is the moral factor which is more potent for evil than any other. Practically every man is susceptible to fear. We suppose that about one man in ten thousand is really " fear- less " in the sense that dangers, rightly called terrible, produce in him a sense of exhilaration which is the equivalent of positive enjoyment. He is made that way ; it is for him a most fortunate accident. Again, there may be four or five mon in every hundred

who are so little shaken by fear that it is no burden upon them. They are conscious of the presence of the terrible thing,

but are not in the least harassed by it. Then Corns the vast majority of mon.—those who are sensitively susceptible to fear, but whose self-respect (whose moral) is proof against any possi- bility of their being betrayed by it. They do not want to die, but they would much rather die than be seen to flinch. At the very bottom of the scale we imagine that there are a few, a very few, miserables whose moral strength is incapable of overcoming

fear ; they are men who would sustain any disgrace—plead any fantastic excuse before a recruiting tribunal—rather than submit themselves to great bodily danger. Colonel Shirley says :—

" Practically every man is susceptible to fear ; it is the skeleton in every soldier's cupboard. The first and commonest form of fear is a vague dread of the enemy, but comfort yourselves—he is even more afraid of you than you can be of him. Consider your points of superiority : better physique, better shooting, better training, greater self-reliance and resourcefulness, and a better cause. 'Thrice is he armed that hath his quarrel just.' There are physical methods of overcoming this typo of fear, such as movement, or firing, or both. In fact, keep your men's minds and bodies occupied and you will succeed to a great extent in eliminating this kind of fear. Smartness of carriage and dress is very important as indicative of self-respect, method, pains, preesion, punctiliousness, punctuality. The man who is particular about his person is probably particular about his duties. I maintain that, caeteris paribus, the better dressed line will always win. Emulation and esprit de corps are also valuable factors, but must not be confused with those vulgar vices, jealousy and cheap swagger, which are so destructive of respect, confidence, contentedness, and comradeship. Respect is a valuable moral factor, but it must begin at home—if you do not respect yourself you must not expect others to respect you."

Comradeship, as no one needs to be told, is characteristic ef the British Army. The men—and there are not many exceptions to the rule—like their officers, believe in them, and habitually praise them. How can the officer be the best friend of his men, and mix freely with them, and yet maintain his

position This is the problem which is at the very root of the officer's moral. It might seem to involve that elusive and tinteachable thing, a feat of tact. But Colonel Shirley certainly gives the right answer when he says that the officer must see to it that he is as superior to his men in all moral qualities as he is in rank. For "rank is but the guinea's stamp," which

may be set as easily on dross as on gold. Another excellent maxim is that the officer (this has been an invariable practice in the British Army for many years) should attend to his men's wants before he sees to his own. If an officer does that, he may safely be weighted by some incompetence, for his men will never desert him. They will stand by him through thick and thin.

The border-line which divides a constant and proper strictness from nagging might also seem to be capable of being traced

only by a man of tact. But Colonel Shirley is ready with a solvent for ordinary use. "Make certain whether mistakes are made through ignorance or carelessness." One sort may be the officer's own fault ; he may have failed in clearness. The other sort deserves the sharpest reproof. And it should never be forgotten that no honest soldier has a grievance, or pretends

to have ono, when he is blamed for what he knows to be his own fault. He has no grudge against an officer who is strict if he be also just. As a Rugby boy once said of a famous Head- Master, "He is a boast—but a just beast." What men in the ranks cannot stand is injustice and variability of temper, se that they never "know where they are."

One of the wisest of the maxims is that a young officer should make himself "infallible in drill." Every one can do this.

However else he may fail, it is within his compass, by means of unyielding application, to know the Manual of Infantry Training backwards. He can then bear himself on the drill-ground with an assurance which cannot fail to impress his men. Half the battle of moral is then won.

There is much else we should like to quote, but we must end with the supremely important advice about "the spirit of the offensive." The officer must have not merely the " tenacity " which is proverbially said to be the virtue of the British Army, but an "aggressive tenacity." He must be the creator, not the creature, of situations. Men can so saturate themselves with the "will to conquer" that, even if they fail of conquest.

they can at least render themselves in a real sense invincible.

Illustrating his meaning, Colonel Shirley says :—

" I should like to give you one more instance. One of my pupils at Cambridge was a giant in size and strength and a first-class rowing man. I asked the coach what sort of an oar he was. Th• best on the River,' he replied. Then,' said I, I suppose he will get his blue." Not he,' said the coach, he has got no deviL' That's it, gentlemen, Devil's the thing that does the trick. You get Devil, drive, push, and hell-fire into your men, and neither the Devil nor the Angel Gabriel with all his Principalities and Powers will ever stop them."

It was Napoleon, we think, who said that he would rather have an army of stags led by a lion than an army of lions led by a

stag ; and in quality of leadership that is the whole truth of the matter.