t of observing in an unpractical manner, and
the whole of this most important branch of their education suffers
accordingly. So much is this the case that nowadays the patrol leaders
often exchange mutual confidences to one another, as it is practically
impossible, owing to conditions of time and space, to obtain the
required information otherwise, and they consider it better to get it
in this manner than to accustom their men to unpractical feats of
riding.

Reconnaissance and its results can only be of value to the training
when kept within the limits that the nature of things dictates.

Whilst the constant presence of danger is the characteristic element
in which the faculties of observation have to work in War, it is the
constant pressure of uncertainty as to the exact movements of the
enemy which equally characteristically forms the conditioning element
in which the intellectual activity of the Leaders has also to work,
and neither one nor the other may be entirely ignored in our
Peace-time training.

CHAPTER VI

THE HIGHER EDUCATION OF OUR OFFICERS

The consideration we have devoted in the foregoing chapters to the
various fields for Cavalry action opened out by the changed conditions
of modern War have shown us what tremendous demands will be made upon
the leader of a great Cavalry 'Mass' in the future. He must be an
absolute master of the technical side of his own Arm. He must be ready
to enter into the spirit of the widest strategical considerations of
the Superior Command, and according to circumstances to act in harmony
with them on his own initiative. He must know the spirit, the methods
of fighting, and the peculiarities of the other Arms, so as to be able
to intervene at the right time and place in the action. He must with
swift determination combine boldness with circumspection; and in
addition, he must not only be a bold horseman, but must possess
inexhaustible activity of mind and body.

If these are the demands modern War will make upon the higher leaders
of the Arm, those which fall on the lower ranks have been intensified
in similar fashion; for, quite apart from their bodily and mental
qualifications, they will need, for the solution of the various
problems with which they will be confronted, an immensely increased
amount of military knowledge and executive ability.

The amount of initiative which will be required in simple Cavalry
engagements between the larger groups, and in strat