- General Mishchenko after the fall of Port Arthur.
The Protective Cavalry will therefore, in such a case, not only have to prevent the enemy's Independent Cavalry from obtaining information by penetrating their screen, but will also have the task of obtaining information as to the enemy's numbers and direction of march. That they are able to do this even in the face of greatly superior numbers has been proved by the Japanese, whose cavalry, outnumbered and badly horsed as they were, succeeded throughout the war in a remarkable degree in penetrating the enemy's screen and obtaining information. The Russians, on the other hand, in spite of their masses of cavalry, failed not only to destroy the diminutive force opposed to them, but even to penetrate their thin veil or obtain any information of what was taking place behind it.
Are we not in precisely the same position as the Japanese in our numerical weakness in cavalry, and should we not be confronted by the same problem in the event of war with a military nation?
Let us, then, see how the Japanese Protective Cavalry was able to fulfil its mission in spite of the vastly superior numbers of its opponents. In the first place the Japanese cavalry is trained in the orthodox cavalry spirit, which is highly developed; suppleness and power to manœuvre for the delivery of the attack is the chief aim, while the charge is regarded as the culmination of manœuvre. Swordsmanship, horsemanship,
