THE EYES OF AN ARMY.
IN Mafeking, just before the investment closed in, Colonel Baden-Powell completed a remarkable little book, " Aids to Scouting : for Non-Commissioned Officers and Men" (Gale and Polden, is.) Though small in bulk, it is a condensation of the whole of his experiences in the art of scouting in an enemy's country. It is full not only of information, but of suggestion. It also presents, from the author's recollection of what took place in his own mind, a curious series of "experiences," and of the growth and training of the power of observation and infer- ence. It is so self-conscious and introspective that if it were not fall of practical purpose some of its chapters might be taken to be reflections on certain states of mind, rather than a manual for teaching soldiers the most dangerous and diffi- cult branch of their business. The conclusion from the form in which it is presented is that the British soldier, to whom it is addressed, is as intelligent as the most exacting critic could wish him to be, and that Colonel Baden-Powell, in setting down his own training and sensations when occupied in the hazardous life of the scout, has no doubt that the proper inferences will be drawn, both by officers and men, from his frank and interesting statements.
The condition of things in which scouting in its most diffi- cult form is required comes about after the complete rupture of relations of all kinds between the parties attack- ing and attacked. It is a psychological condition, rather hard to realise, in which one side is for the moment absolutely without knowledge of what the other is doing, where it is, and how it is to be found. It supposes the temporary loss of all the common means of information—no people to question, no intercourse of neutrals between the camps—and that the army has to rely solely on what it can learn by its own eyes and ears. Such isolation is only common in savage warfare, as in the Indian passes, or in our struggle in Matabeleland. But it occurs also when the population retreats before an army, as in the Russian campaign of Napoleon, or where, as now in parts of the country round Ladysmith, the people have entirely withdrawn from the scene of operations, and only the combatants remain. When the advance from Colenso is made to relieve Sir George White this kind of scout- ing will be absolutely essential to the relieving force. An example of its danger occurred only last week near the Orange River, when Lieutenant-Colonel Keith-Falconer and an officer's patrol suddenly found themselves under close fire from a small advanced party of hidden Boers, with disastrous results. Colonel Baden-Powell's advice in cases similar to the advance on Ladysmith is to use men who have learnt their business in peace, if not in war. "It is no use going on such a service untrained. Many lives have been lost at that game. It is most remarkable to see what a number of good men have been killed by getting their first experience of scouting in war, simply through ignorance." The personal qualities which he requires in our scouts are quickness of eye, quick hearing, practice in getting news sent back quickly to headquarters, and the habit of judging correctly from trifling facts observed. In South Africa, where the great part of the enemy's movements are on open veldt, tracking, and the power to "read" tracks, and to tell their age, direction, number, and purpose, concealment, avoiding exposure on hill- tops, knowledge of direction, of night-work, acuteness in interpreting sounds when heard, good riding, and the use of the sense of smell by night, are all necessary to the acquire. ment of trustworthy information as to the position and inten- tion of the enemy. The means by which this information is transmitted to headquarters falls more directly under the instructions of cavalry. In the contingent from the Colony of Natal itself there must be many Volunteers who possess much of the needful training.
This hazardous work is among the most important which can be performed by individual soldiers. Colonel Baden- Powell calls them the "detectives" of the army. But the simile does not cover their duties or adequately express their use. It is not merely in tracking the beaten enemy, but in discovering the intentions of the advancing foe, that the scout's personal qualities may determine the fortunes of a day. It was a single Prussian scout who, before Sadowa, discovered the whole of the Austrian army drawn up in a new and unlooked- for position in time for the Prussians to alter their plane. It was another German scout who brought news of the unsup- ported French army at Vionvdle, and enabled the Germans to destroy it. But the services of scouts like Major Colquhoun Grant in the Peninsular War sometimes determine the strategy of a whole campaign. Napier's description of the methods of this officer, in whom "the utmost daring was so mixed with subtlety of genius and tempered by discretion that it is hard to say which quality predominated," agrees closely with Colonel Baden-Powell's ideal of the scout's qualities. Grant and others like him carried out their work in the face of a regular army, amply equipped with cavalry, which they observed dressed in full uniform, and relying mainly on their own readiness and the speed of their horses. Grant's best piece of scouting was his discovery that Marmont did not really intend to attack Almeida or Ciudad Rodrigo during the siege of Badajoz by the British. He spent three days inside Marmont's lines, in uniform, and discovered that the Marshal had prepared provisions and scaling ladders for a siege. He then galloped through the French cavalry scouts, after receiving their fire, and preceded Marmont's army. This he watched through a pass, noting every battalion and gun, and their direction, which was towards Ciudad Rodrigo. Still unsatisfied, he donbled back and entered the town of Tamames after the French had passed. There be discovered that they had left their scaling ladders behind, which showed that there was no real intention to storm Ciudad Rodrigo. This news, taken to Wellington, left him free to bring the siege of Badajoz to a successful end without apprehension for the other fortress, which he had just captured.
England, with frontiers all over the world abutting on the "uncivilised fringe," has constant need of highly trained scouts. The want is felt in most of our wars, small and great, but it by no means follows that we shall be able to find the men we want. As long as the United States regular troops fought only in their own country they were very care- ful to employ the best native article of this kind, trained on the spot. In the Mexican War, against an enemy not par- ticularly formidable, but used to guerilla fighting, the Texas frontiermen served as the eyes of the army. In the Indian wars, when small bodies of troops were acting against an enemy of unusual subtlety and courage, " specialists " in tracking and scouting were retained at a high rate of pay ; while in acting against the Filipinos the want of such aids left the American Regulars singularly helpless. "Scout Cody" was a trusted adviser to the frontier officers long before be won fame and dollars with his Wild West Show, and General Caster's disaster would not have occurred had his advice been followed. Another famous American scout, Burnham, was engaged by the Chartered Company for service in the Matabele War, and showed his skill, as Colonel Baden-Powell points out, by "feeling his way" back by night along the track of Wilson's force, when he was despatched to take news of its position to the main body. But England has at this moment no "disturbed districts" in which this kind of training is part of the daily life of settlers. Our frontiers are so neatly rounded off, and we are in such a hurry to establish the Pax Britannica, that we have no natural training ground for scouts of the British race. The nation simply would not tolerate a state of things like that which went on on the Indian frontier for sixty years, and made the services of men like Scout Cody necessary to the State even after his first visit to London. At home the pursuits which tend to train young men for such work are less popular than formerly. The bicycle steadily lessens the wish to learn to ride, and the immense popularity of games has reduced the number of those who follow sport. Half Colonel Baden - Powell's examples and instances of the observations of successful scouting are really those to which field sports accustom men like himself, who pursue them in moderation, but with keenness. He believes that scouting can be taught in peace time as a military lesson. As there is no visible source of supply else- where this is the only alternative. But the best training for officers and men will be abroad, where both can learn the art in the mixture of work and play, of sport and business, in which Colonel Baden-Powell himself acquired the training which he perfected later in the Zulu, Matabele, and Ashanti Wars. It would be quite possible to form scout- ing camps in favourable places in India, South Africa, or Canada, and to use these as "finishing schools" for capable and promising men.
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