General Maurice's principle is, we are convinced, an abso- lutely
sound one, and we congratulate him most heartily on his vigour and initiative in the matter. The cyclist rifleman must be an experienced cyclist who can also shoot, but must not bother his head about foot soldiers' drill. That the civilian cyclist can be made by a little trouble into an efficient cyclist rifleman we do not doubt, and we trust that the mili- tary authorities will entirely abandon the notion that his only, or at any rate chief, use is to act as an unarmed guide or messen- ger. Taught a few simple and appropriate evolutions, and given also a chance to learn how to shoot, the cyclist rifleman may become invaluable. Think what a screen, behind which a general could move his forces unobserved, would be formed by a loosely spread body of fifty thousand cyclist riflemen blocking every road, say, in the district between the South and the North Downs.
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