I have not attempted to do more than roughly indicate that the solution of these four disputed tactical questions in Clausewitz is to be sought in a study of the latest campaign, as he would have said himself; that is, the campaign in Manchuria. For, as the _Times_ correspondent in the XLVth Chapter, "Clausewitz in Manchuria," of his book "The War in the Far East," observes, "It will be abundantly clear to any one who has followed the great battles in Manchuria that the spirit of Clausewitz has presided over Japanese victories and wept over Russian defeats." CHAPTER XII CHANGES SINCE THE DAYS OF CLAUSEWITZ In reading Clausewitz it is, first, the great principles of the nature of war founded on human nature, which alter not; and, secondly, it is his spirit and practical way of looking at things that we want to assimilate and apply to THE PROBLEMS OF TO-DAY, to which end it is necessary to read him always with the changed conditions of to-day in our minds, and think what he would have said under the circumstances. These changes are chiefly:-- (1) The improved net-work of roads. (2) Railways. (3) Telegraphs, wire and wireless. (4) Improved arms. (5) Aviation (6) Universal service armies. THE IMPROVED NET-WORK OF ROADS The improved net-work of roads in Europe (not, of course, in Manchuria, or in Afghanistan where we have to consider our future strategy, but in Europe), as General v. Caemmerer puts it, "now offers to the movements of armies everywhere a whole series of useful roads where formerly one or two only were available," easier gradients, good bridges instead of unreliable ones, etc. So that the march-discipline of that day when concentrated for battle, artillery and train _on_ the roads, infantry and cavalry _by the side_ of the roads, has disappeared. Such close concentration is therefore now not possible, as we move all arms _on_ the road, and an army corps with train, or two without, is the most that we can now calculate on bringing into action in one day on one road. RAILWAYS "Railways have, above all, completely altered the term 'base,'" remarks V. Caemmerer. "Railways carry in a few days men, horses, vehicles, and materials of all kinds from the remotest district to any desired point of our country, and nobody would any longer think of accumulating enormous supplies of all kinds at certain fortified points on his own frontier with the object of basing himself on those points. One does not base one's self any longer on a distinct district which is specially prepared for that object, but upon the whole country, which has become one single magazine, with separate store-rooms. So the term 'base' has now to be considered in this light." It is only when operating in savage or semi-savage countries, where there are no railways, that the old idea of a base applies.