Page:Encyclopædia Britannica, Ninth Edition, v. 2.djvu/657

] reserve ; as also only sons of widows, and others who are the sole supports of families, or who have, or have lost, brothers in the army. Although exemptions afe much more charily granted in the third than in the first and second years of liability, they are still sufficiently numerous to soften materially the hardships of compulsory service. Finally, after all &quot;exemptions&quot; and &quot;adjournments &quot;.have been made, there remain those passed as fit for service, and from these the required number are chosen by ballot. But the ballot is almost nominal. In 1862, for instance, when the number coming of age amounted to 227,000, only 69,000 were left on the lists for the ballot 63,000 being the required contingent and in many districts the ballot was not applied at all In 1867, 262,000 came of age, 110,000 were passed for the service, and about 100,000 taken. The system of exemptions is so elastic that practically the recruiting commission can select, by a process of elimination, those best fitted for service, and abolish the element of chance. A margin of about 10 per cent., however, is usually allowed; those who draw the lucky numbers are passed into the Ersatz reserve, but remain liable for a year to fill any accidental vacancies in the peace establishment. The men drawn for the army are then told off to the ditferent branches of the service; men with good chests and good feet to the infantry, men accustomed to horses to the cavalry, gamekeepers and foresters to the rifles, men of high standard to the guard, those of inferior physique to the train, carpenters and mechanics to the engineers, and a certain proportion of shoemakers, tailors, saddlers, &c., to all regiments and corps. The guards recruit throughout the kingdom generally ; the cavalry, artillery, f usiliers, and rifles throughout their own corps districts; while the infantry regiments draw their recruits as far as possible from the corresponding landwehr battalion districts. The proceedings of the battalion recruiting commissions are revised by brigade commissions, who distribute the recruits to regiments and corps, and these again by a corps com mission. The final decision and allotment to regiments is usually completed about September. From that time &quot;the men are called recruits, and amenable to military law, but are given passes until the 15th October, the date on which they join their regiments. These conscripts form the great bulk of the army ; but there are other classes, also, serving under varied conditions. Of these the most important are the &quot;one-year volunteers,&quot; young men of means and education who, on condition of passing certain examinations and bearing all expenses of clothing, equipment, &c., are allowed to pass into the reserve after one year s service only. This system is a great boon to the middle -and professional classes, who thus materially reduce the interruption which the full term in the ranks would cause in their education; and every effort is made to render the service &quot;as light as is consistent with thorough instruction. Many of these pass the requisite examinations for officers rank, and become officers of land wehr, or qualify as non-commissioned officers, and serve as such if recalled on mobilisation. A certain number of youths enter voluntarily for three years, gaining the privilege of serving at an earlier age, and choosing their own regiments. The non-commissioned officers are mostly &quot;re-engaged men.&quot; Re-engagements are allowed for various periods, and each squadron or company has several &quot;Capitu- iinten&quot; smart young men, who have engaged to prolong their service in the ranks with the object of getting pro motion. In the cavalry it is common for men to engage to serve four years instead of three, in consideration of which their time in the reserve is reduced by one year, and that in the landwehr by two years. Finally, there are a certain number who serve for a given number of years in return for advantages received in the way of education or maintenance from Government; such are the pupils of the non-commissioned officers school and of the school of forestry, &c. After completing his term in the ranks the soldier is passed into the reserve, retaining, however, his place in his regiment, borne on its books, and liable to be recalled to it in case of war. The reservist is supposed to take part in at least two manoeuvres, not exceeding eight weeks, during his term of reserve service. On completing his seven years army and reserve service he leaves his regiment and passes into the landwehr, and is taken on the lists of the corresponding landwehr battalion for the remaining five years of liability. The landwehr battalion is the basis of the local organisation, both for recruiting and mobilisation. As a rule, to each three-battalion regiment of the line is attached a two-battalion landwehr regiment. These two are connected as closely as possible; they bear the same number, the line regiment draws its recruits from the battalion districts, furnishes the staff for their cadres, and passes its men into their ranks. In peace time the landwehr battalions exist only in cadre, viz., a commanding officer, adjutant, and three clerks and orderlies per battalion, and a sergeant-major and two non-commissioned officers per company. These are charged with keeping the registers of the names and addresses of all reserve and landwehr men in their districts, and on mobilisation the whole labour of summoning, collecting, and forwarding the men to their destination falls on the landwehr battalion commander and his staff. The fusilier reserve landwehr battalions form a peculiar feature in local organisation. Each army corps has a fusilier regiment, which does not draw its recruits from a particular sub- district, but, like the cavalry and special corps, from the corps district generally. But to each fusilier regiment is attached a reserve landwehr battalion and district, bearing the same number, but used to equalise and fill up the regi ments throughout the corps district generally, remedying deficiencies in the regimental quotas of recruits or reserve men, and forming, in fact, a great central depot of recruits and reserves. It has always for its district some important town or centre of commerce, where the floating population is largest and local attachment weakest, and whence also the communications to all parts of the province are easiest, and is allowed a considerably larger staff. The following is an approximate estimate of the resources in men at the disposal of the German empire:—

400,000 450,000 500,000 Standing array, Reserves of the army, Landwehr, Total trained men,. 1,350,000 When the army is mobilised, about 1,250,000 of these are embodied, and 100,000 remain still available of men not trained, but registered and liable to be called out ; then there are the next year s contingent of recruits, 120,000, and Ersatz reserve, which cannot be estimated under 800,000, making, with her trained soldiers, a total of about 2 millions.

Prussian Army. The Prussian army is divided into field troops, who in peace time form the standing army and the school of instruction in arms for the nation, and in war time, augmented by the reserves, become the active army; Depot troops (Ersatztruppen), who have no existence in peace time; but in war time are formed of cadres supplied from the field troops, and filled up by recruits and reserve men, and whose duty it is to maintain the active army at full strength; and garrison troops (JSesatzur.gstruppen)., 