y machine-gun fire--before we had machine-guns, except as rare
specimens, here and there. Our horse artillery was beyond any doubt the
best in the world at that time. Even before peace came German generals
paid ungrudging tributes to the efficiency of our Regular Army, writing
down in their histories of war that this was the model of all armies,
the most perfectly trained... It was spent by the spring of '15. Its
memory remains as the last epic of those professional soldiers who,
through centuries of English history, took "the King's shilling" and
fought when they were told to fight, and left their bones in far places
of the world and in many fields in Europe, and won for the British
soldier universal fame as a terrible warrior. There will never be a
Regular Army like that. Modern warfare has opened the arena to the
multitude. They may no longer sit in the Coliseum watching the paid
gladiators. If there be war they must take their share of its sacrifice.
They must be victims as well as victors. They must pay for the luxury of
conquest, hatred, and revenge by their own bodies, and for their safety
against aggression by national service.

After the first quick phases of the war this need of national soldiers
to replace the professional forces became clear to the military leaders.
The Territorials who had been raised for home defense were sent out to
fill up the gaps, and their elementary training was shown to be good
enough, as a beginning, in the fighting-lines. The courage of those
Territorial divisions who came out first to France was quickly proved,
and soon put to the supreme test, in which they did not fail. From the
beginning to the end these men, who had made a game of soldiering in
days of peace, yet a serious game to which they had devoted much of
their spare time after working-hours, were splendid beyond all words of
praise, and from the beginning to the end the Territorial officers--men
of good standing in their counties, men of brain and business
training--were handicapped by lack of promotion and treated with
contempt by the High Command, who gave preference always to the Regular
officers in every staff appointment.

This was natural and inevitable in armies controlled by the old Regular
school of service and tradition. As a close corporation in command of
the machine, it was not within their nature or philosophy to make way
for the new type. The Staff College was jealous of its own. Sandhurst
and Woolwich