The Author was led to compile this account of Army Organization owing to his inability to discover any book dealing systematically with that subject. Military writers do, of course, make frequent allusions to Organization, but a previous acquaintance with the subject is generally assumed. One looks in vain for an explicit account, either of the principles underlying organization, or of the development of its forms and methods.

It is true that the word Organization figures in the title of more than one Military treatise, but the subject is handled unsystematically and empirically, so that the ordinary reader is unable to realize the significance of the facts. In some cases the term Organization is interpreted in so wide a sense as to include not only Tactics, Staff Duties, and Administration, but any matters of moment to an army. Thus, in the volume of essays recently published, an author of weight states that “Organization for War means thorough and sound preparation for war in all its branches,” and goes on to say, “the raising of men, their physical and moral improvement ... their education and training ... are the fruits of a sound organization.” In the present work, Organization is taken in a more literal and limited sense. The book would otherwise have tended to become a discussion of every question affecting the efficiency of armies. The intention of the Author is to give in broad outline a general account of Organization for War, and of the psychological principles underlying the exercise of Command, which it is the main purpose of Organization to facilitate.

At the same time the organization discussed is not restricted to that of the British Army, but is that of modern armies in general, as well as of individual armies in particular, that of the British Army being described in greater detail, in Part II.

In Part IV. will be found a sketch of the History of Organization, which should interest any one who, like the Author, is not content with knowing things as they happen to be at present, unless he can trace the steps by which they came to be so.

The subject is intentionally not treated with minuteness of detail. To have made the book a cyclopÆdia of detailed information about organization would have obscured its purpose. It is hoped that the work may prove useful to the increasing numbers of those who have taken up Military work throughout the Empire, and not uninteresting to general readers, and students of history.

Hubert Foster.

Sydney, June 1910.