The protective cavalry will further be influenced by the desire to forestall the enemy in gaining positions for the infantry columns following them, and in taking up for the night a line of outposts on some natural obstacle, which will give them some security whilst they are halted. It is quite a debatable question whether the evolution of cavalry into three classes as at present is not largely due to the arming of cavalry with a good rifle, and to rendering them consequently able to protect themselves, and able to turn out small parties of the enemy who hold defiles, railway stations, etc., against them. The new German Cavalry Regulations, para. 391, state: “Thus cavalry, owing to its great adaptability, is capable of independent action in practically every eventuality of the battlefield.” In any case horse artillery, machine guns, and the rifle have added enormously to the defensive power of cavalry; when, therefore, the protective cavalry are thrown back on the infantry, by the enterprise of the enemy’s independent squadrons, the latter may lightly, and without warning, find themselves attacking infantry in position, by mistake for dismounted cavalry, and consequently suffer very severely. Not only that, but the mixed detachments of all arms likely to be met with at this juncture, possess a power and length of resistance, which our cavalry may perhaps successfully simulate, and thus hold back and delay the advance of the enemy’s cavalry. SECOND PART “A writer upon strategy and tactics ought to treat his subjects as national strategy and tactics; for only such teaching can be of real service to his country.”--VON DER GOLTZ, _Nation in Arms_, p. 143. Instead of labouring the point as to the rôle of cavalry under these circumstances, perhaps one may be permitted to recall to the reader’s mind that, unless we go back to Napoleonic precedent, there are no actual experiences in modern times of the effect to be obtained by using cavalry in the manner prescribed at present. The whole is pure theory, but we can say from our own experience that the protective cavalry may fail if they attempt to be strong everywhere on the old “pepper-box” system. The drives in South Africa, in which we were strong nowhere and weak everywhere, proved, as indeed was expected, that a strong and determined enemy can always break through the long weak line unless the latter follows the line of some serious obstacle. It is also a matter of easy demonstration and universal agreement that the cavalry which dominates in the first great cavalry struggle has already gained an enormous advantage for its side.