On Thursday an Army Order was published constituting a General
Staff for the British Army. The General Staff is to be composed of two divisions,—the General Staff at headquarters, and the General Staff in commands and districts. The former will consist of fifty-seven officers, including three Major- Generals, six Colonels, twenty-one Lieutenant. Colonelsor Majors, and twenty-seven Captains. The latter will consist of a hundred and fourteen officers, most of them being of the rank of Colonel or below. Thus, in all, the General Staff will consist of a hundred and seventy-one persons. The functions of the General Staff at headquarters will be to advise on the strategical distribution of the Army, to super- vise the education of officers, the training and preparation of the Army for war, the study of military schemes, and the collecting of military intelligence. It will also direct the general policy in Army matters, and secure continuity of action in the execution of that policy. The functions of the General Staff in commands and districts will be to assist the officers on whose Staffs they are serving in promoting military efficiency, and to aid them in carrying out the policy pre- scribed by headquarters. The members of the General Staff will be drawn from the officers in the Army considered most likely to prove capable of forming a school of progressive military thought. As a general rule, officers will be required to have been through the Staff College and to have had eight years' service. All appointments for the General Staff will be for four years, after which an officer, if below the rank of Lieutenant-Colonel, will return to regimental duty for a period of not leas than one year. All appointments will be on . probation for the first year.
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