The disposition of the military
"expert" is still to think too little of machinery and to demand too
much of the men. Behind our front at the time of my visit there were,
for example, many thousands of cavalry, men tending horses, men engaged
in transporting bulky fodder for horses and the like. These men were
doing about as much in this war as if they had been at Timbuctoo. Every
man who is taken from munition making at X to spur-worshipping in khaki,
is a dead loss to the military efficiency of the country. Every man that
is needed or is likely to be needed for the actual operations of
modern warfare can be got by combing out the cavalry, the brewing
and distilling industries, the theatres and music halls, and the like
unproductive occupations. The under-staffing of munition works, the
diminution of their efficiency by the use of aged and female labour, is
the straight course to failure in this war.
In X, in the forges and machine shops, I saw already too large a
proportion of boys and grey heads.
War is a thing that changes very rapidly, and we have in the Tanks only
the first of a great series of offensive developments. They are bound to
be improved, at a great pace. The method of using them will change very
rapidly. Any added invention will necessitate the scrapping of old types
and the production of the new patterns in quantity.
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