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ARMENTIERES —ARMIES

Armentieres, a town of France, department girls, a national professional school, hospital, museum, of Nord, arrondissement of Lille, 10 miles W. 1ST.W. and small library. It is an important centre of textile of that town, on the railway from Lille to Dunkirk. manufactures. Population (1896), 26,714; (1901), It has a communal college for boys and one for 29,401. AEM IE S. solidly constructed than those of modern Europe might be Introductory. found to possess qualities of cohesion and of endurance THE last quarter of the 19th century saw a great de- which would, to a great extent, compensate for numerical velopment of military forces, but no organic changes. deficiency. It can only be said with certainty that modern Armies have steadily grown in size, and the severe com- war makes increasing demands upon military training in petition for predominance in numbers has led to reduc- every branch, enhances the value of individual military tions in the period of service with the colours. At the capacity, and imposes more and more strain upon the same time the principle of universal liability to service has nerve and endurance of the soldier. At the same time, been rigorously enforced by all the great powers of Europe. the race for numerical strength increases the difficulty of Relatively to that of France the population of Germany obtaining the necessary qualities without an inordinate has been steadily increasing, and the former country, growth of military expenditure and a consequent dislocation unless the period of service is still further curtailed, of the machinery of civil life entailed when masses of men must soon find its army considerably inferior in numerical are called up for periodical training. The problem of the strength to that of the latter. Whether or not such future is to effect a satisfactory compromise between these further reduction is compatible with military efficiency conflicting conditions. appears to be doubtful. The tendency of modern war is Military systems practically fall into two categories—the to increase the demand for careful training of all ranks, short-service, or German system, which is universal among and two years of continuous military life is barely sufficient great European powers, and which has now extended to to make the average man into a thoroughly competent Japan; and the militia system, which in England dates infantry soldier, while the technical branches of an army back to Saxon times, and which has reached its most cannot be adequately instructed in so short a time. complete development in Switzerland. The first system Systems of national education, by developing the recep- aims at sweeping the mass of the able-bodied manhood of tivity of the recruit and sharpening his faculties, have a nation into the ranks for a short period of continuous undoubtedly facilitated military training; but habits of training, followed by a long period of furlough and a discipline, the mutual reliance and mutual knowledge of further period of liability to service in a national reserve. officers and men, and the many qualities necessary to the During the period of furlough the soldier may be recalled making of effective military bodies, need time for their from time to time to the colours for instruction. The development. While, therefore, the standard of general militia system, on the other hand, imposes an initial intelligence of a population, other national characteristics training of six or eight weeks, followed by a general being equal, may to some extent regulate the period of annual training of the whole force for a fixed period service necessary to ensure military efficiency, there is during several years, and by a further period in a national evidently a minimum in every case which cannot be reserve. It is evident that, if the period of service with passed without danger. The relatively low intelligence the colours in the first system is steadily reduced, there of the Russian population would probably render it im- must come a point at which the second system may propossible to transform the recruit into a trained soldier in vide the best means of military training. This point two years, and in the Russian army, as in the British, may not have been yet reached ; but some authorities, the period is long, compared with that accepted in other watching present tendencies, have been led to believe that great European forces. What the irreducible minimum is the militia system may ultimately supersede that devised in any particular case cannot at present be stated. There by Scharnhorst, with the powerful support of Stein, for have been signs that the short-service system does not the military regeneration of Prussia after the disasters of confer the solidarity which existed in the older professional 1806. armies. The Franco-German war produced an almost The experience of recent years has gone far to modify unbroken series of successes for the German arms. The the view, cherished in Great Britain, that universal service sense of military superiority conferred by the early is destructive of the industrial vigour of a nation. Under victories on the frontier and maintained by subsequent a rigid system, relentlessly applied, Germany has presented experience was a moral factor of supreme importance. the spectacle of an amazing commercial development. The system brought to perfection by the Germans cannot, It has even been contended that the habits of order, of however, be said to have been tested by defeat, and there discipline, and of self - reliance inculcated by military were ugly symptoms of panic during the fighting training, wisely administered, have played a part in equiparound Metz, which, in less favourable circumstances, ping the German people for the industrial competition might have spread with disastrous results. Since this upon which they have entered with the most marked war, the period of service has been reduced in both success. In face of facts which cannot be disputed, it Germany and France; and while in both countries careful will be difficult in future to maintain that the burden of consideration has been given to all that is implied in the compulsory military service necessarily impedes the interm organization, and the military machine, as such, has dustrial progress of a nation and breaks up its civil organtherefore gained greatly in efficiency, the result, as affect- ization. The management of public business in Germany ing the solidarity of a great army in the field, remains to and the handling of great questions of national defence be shown. Where the constitution of two armies is stand in marked contrast to British methods. Military practically the same, and where numbers and military training, as enforced upon the best manhood of Germany, skill are practically equal, the issue of a contest would has not benumbed its intellectual vigour, and may have turn upon the characteristics of the race or of the nation. increased its capacity for the orderly transaction of busiOn the other hand, it is possible that an army more ness. Personal service is a higher test of patriotism than