Page:Statesman's Year-Book 1921.djvu/980

 92S GERMANY

(Einwohnerwchr), 350,000 strong. Of these only the Public Safety Police were armed and equipped, and they were distributed amongst the chief towns of Germany. They were provided with rifles, bayonets, hand grenades and machine guns, and had in addition 8 field howitzers, 16 field guns, and 12 trench mortars.

The Emergency Volunteers were organised locally in companies to assist the Civil Power in case of disturbance, and to act as a reserve to. the Reichswehr. They were unarmed, but arms were stored for them at the headquarters of the Reichswehr brigades to which they were affiliated.

The Civic Guards were organised in companies for service in aid of the Civil Power within their own communes. They were unarmed, but rifles and revolvers were stored for them in depots.

The raising of these forces was not contrary to the terms of the Armistice, but they are contrary to the terms of the Treaty of Versailles, which forbid any military associations of civilians or reservists. After numerous negotia- tions and great pressure from the Supreme War Council, these forces were disbanded during 1920, except in East Prussia and Bavaria, the German Government professing itself unable to enforce disbandment in these places. A large number of rifles, particularly in Bavaria, are still in the hands of the population. Negotiations on these infractions of the Treaty were still in progress in January, 1921.

It Navy.

As a fighting force the German Navy ceased to exist under the terms of the Armistice and the Treaty of Peace.

The Treaty allows to the German Government the right of maintaining a navy, recruited and maintained on a volunteer basis. The fleet consists of six pre-Dreadnoughts completed between 1904 and 1908, each displacing approximately 13,000 tons and mounting four 11 inch and fourteen 6 "7 inch guns. They are the Braunschweio, Elsass, Hannover, Hessen, Schlesien, and ttchlcswig-Holstein. They possess little fighting value. The six light cruisers authorized by the Treaty are the Medusa, Thetis, Amazone, Arkona, Ham- burg, and Berlin, completed between 1901 and 1905, and each of them mounting ten 4"1 inch guns. There are also twelve destroyers, three of older type and nine dating from 1911-14, and twelve torpedo-boats. No sub- marines are permitted. In addition to the ships and vessels indicated, Germany is authorised to retain certain others, which are to be kept in reserve and to have no ammunition on board. These are the battleships Lothringen and Preussen, the cruisers Nymyhe and Niobe, four destroyers, and four torpedo-boats. All these are of the classes and dates of the vessels named above. Ships may be built of like strength to replace any of the ships of the existing establishment.

The total personnel may not exceed 15,000, including a maximum of 1,500 officers and warrant officers. The officers and warrant officers engage for a minimum of twenty-five consecutive years, and the petty officers and men for twelve years. The vessels of war are to have a fixed allowance of arms, munitions, and material.

An Act was passed by the National Assembly establishing a provisional Navy on a volunteer and democratic basis for the protection of the coasts and the removal of mines, and also for policing and protecting the fisheries. A decree was signed by the Defence Minister and the Chief of the Admiralty on September 3, 1919, instructing the commanders of the naval stations on the Baltic and North Sea to enlist volunteers throughout the country for this provisional Imperial Navy. This has been done and the arrangement has