unt on being
able to send back one's information by single messengers. Since it is
a prime condition of the problem that a district thoroughly commanded
by the enemy must be ridden through, the safe return of a single
messenger can never be guaranteed; hence the Commander will either be
obliged to send his reports in duplicate or triplicate, or in the last
resort fight his way through with them himself. Hence it will be
advisable to compose each party of two or three patrols, each of three
men, assigning a smart lance-corporal to each.

One officer, one non-commissioned officer, two lance-corporals, and
five men must, therefore, be considered as a fairly normal type.

The Commander can then despatch two reports, and the third he must
bring in himself, and must well consider how long it will be safe to
continue his observation, and what it is of real importance for his
superiors to know.

But he must never allow himself to be hurried into the despatch of
unimportant information. He must always keep before his mind the
essential strategical elements of the whole situation. It seems to me
altogether wrong to send off such patrols with general instructions to
keep in touch with the enemy, a common manoeuvre practice. Since
these latter generally last only a few days, there is not much
difficulty in maintaining such a system, particularly when information
is sent by single messengers. But in War everything is very different.
One would very soon have got through all one's officers and still not
be well informed. The patrols must, therefore, be told to return
within a certain time limit, and their reliefs, who are to be fully
instructed as far as the information available goes, must be
despatched before this time limit is expired. Even then we shall soon
exhaust the available supply of officers who will have been driven to
the limit of their endurance in purely strategic missions, and in the
end we shall have to fall back upon Non-commissioned Officers for
tactical observation.

This tactical reconnaissance will, in the first place, devote its
attention to the enemy's Cavalry. The patrols assigned to these duties
will attack the enemy wherever they meet him, to find out what is
going on, and as soon as possible establish a moral superiority over
them.

But even they cannot remain permanently in touch with the enemy,
because they, too, must send in their information by messenger, their
strength thus rapidly diminishing,