Page:Diplomacy and the War (Andrassy 1921).djvu/199

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192
DIPLOMACY AND THE WAR

example, in the German Army. All advantages, distinctions and promotions fell to the portion of the General Staff, and all the dangers and suffering fell to the part of the troops. It was scarcely possible for officers commanding troops in the field to get into the General Staff, and they were always superseded by the successful candidates coming from the military schools. Heavy work and the uncertainty of the future ruined the nerves of the officers. The continuous effort for promotion, which could only be obtained over the corpses of friends, the desire to curry favour with superior officers, and the victory of the flatterer in this competition, all combined to weaken moral courage and to reduce the readiness to accept responsibility for its own sake. Enterprise became smaller and smaller, and one met far more often with lip-service among the General Staff and in the higher posts. In the German Army, where the iron discipline was certainly as strong as with us, independence and boldness were much more pronounced, and promotion was not only expected from above as was the case with us. One could note frequently during the war with dissatisfaction the hatred and distrust which officers in the field bore towards the General Staff.

The second great organic weakness of this army was the fact that the Hungarians, the race which fought with most enthusiasm next to the Germans, did not feel itself to be an integral part of this army, nor did they regard it as their own. Among the higher ranks of the officers there were only a few Hungarians, and