true that no
particular reason can be adduced for imperilling the colours in the
field. It is questionable, however, whether this holds good in civilized
warfare. Colours were carried in action by both the Russians and the
Japanese in the war of 1904-5, and they were supplemented on both sides
by smaller flags or camp colours. The conception of the colour as the
emblem of union, the rallying-point, of the regiment has been mentioned
above. Many hold that such a rallying-point is more than ever required
in the modern _guerre de masses_, when a national short-service army is
collected in all possible strength on the decisive battle-field, and
that scarcely any risks or loss of life would be disproportionate to the
advantages gained by the presence of the colours. There is further a
most important factor in the problem, which has only arisen in recent
years through modern perfection in armament. In the first stages of an
attack, the colours could remain, as in the past, with the closed
reserves or line of battle, and they would not be uncased and sent into
the thick of the fight at all hazards until the decisive assault was
being delivered. Then, it is absolutely essential, as a matter of
tactics, that the artillery (q.v.), which covers the assault with all
the power given it by modern science and training, should be well
informed as to the progress of the infantry. This covering fire was
maintained by the Japanese until the infantry was actually in the smoke
of their own shrapnel. With uniforms of neutral tint the need of some
means whereby the artillery officers can, at 4000 yds. range,
distinguish their own infantry from that of the enemy, is more
pronounced than ever. The best troops are apt to be unsteadied by being
fired into by their own guns (e.g. at Elandslaagte), and the more
powerful the shell, and the more rapid and far-ranging the fire of the
guns, the more necessary it becomes to prevent such accidents. A
practicable solution of the difficulty would be to display the colours
as of old, and this course would not only have to an enhanced degree the
advantages it formerly possessed, but would also provide the simplest
means for ensuring the vitally necessary co-operation of infantry and
artillery in the decisive assault. The duty of carrying the colours was
always one of special danger, and sometimes, in the old short-range
battles, every officer who carried a flag was shot. That this fate would
necessarily over