Page:The Working and Management of an English Railway.djvu/325

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RAILWAYS AS A MEANS OF DEFENCE.
287

German army, he was forced to retreat with the Northern army to Lisle, taking with him, as far as possible, the rolling stock and other personnel of the railway, he had no time to dismantle his house, or remove any of his goods and chattels. He accordingly left behind him a letter addressed to any officers of the German army who might be quartered in his house, politely begging them to make free use of everything they found there, but expressing a hope that they would do as little damage as possible. But the Teuton was not to be beaten in courtesy by the Gaul, for on M. Banderali's return, after the evacuation, he found everything just as he had left it, and upon the piano in his drawing-room was a volume of Schubert's songs subscribed to their courteous, though involuntary, host by the officers of the German army who had been his guests!

Colonel H. M. Hozier, who recently read a paper before the members of the Royal United Service Institution on the "Equipment and Transport of Modern Armies," enlarged upon the importance, to military commanders, of having the control of an efficient railway corps able to move with an army, to construct or repair railways in advancing, and to dismantle and break them down when necessary to cover a retreat. There is no doubt that in such a case, it would be of the greatest assistance to those who were conducting such operations, to be able to command the services not only of trained Engineer officers, but of artificers, engine drivers, firemen, and men of all the various crafts connected with the making, repairing, and working of railways; and it is satisfactory to add that the need of such a body of men has not been lost sight of by the