Page:The New International Encyclopædia 1st ed. v. 02.djvu/52

ARMIES. own horses. At the end of one year's service they are transferred to the reserve. Two-, three-, and four-year volunteers are men desirous of adopting the army as their profession, who volunteer for either of these periods and then reëngage. The vast majority of the under officers of the army are recruited from this class. There are no public official statistics of the German army on a war footing, but it is popularly supposed that in the last extremity the present organization would supply a war strength of over 3,000,000 trained men. The ideal of Frederick the Great has never been effaced; and at the beginning of the Twentieth Century, the German army was universally conceded to be unequaled in point of organization, discipline, training, and general efficiency. The rank and file possess the highest educational standard in Europe, while the army as a whole is particularly distinguished for the national spirit which pervades all ranks. The German officer is educated technically to a point of efficiency excelled in no other nation and approached nowhere in Europe unless it be in France.

The organization in detail, is as follows: Infantry.—The normal establishment is as follows: A company consists of 4 officers and 145 rank and file. There are 4 companies to a battalion and 3 battalions to a regiment. Two regiments constitute a brigade. Cavalry.—There are 93 regiments of regular cavalry, each with 5 squadrons. There is little, if any, difference between the peace and war strength of squadrons, which is given as 5 officers, 150 men, and 165 horses. Artillery.—There are 105 regiments organized in brigade divisions of 3 batteries each. The horse artillery is divided into 20 brigades of 2 batteries each. In all, there are 500 batteries, of which 47 are horse and the remainder field. Batteries at war strength consist of 6 guns with 5 officers and about 170 rank and file. In 1901 the artillery was in process of reorganization as to men and matériel. The following summary includes the aggregate number and general divisions of the German army on a peace footing in 1901:

. The armies of Greece are divided among three military districts (namely: the Athenian, the Thessalian, and that of Epirus). Liability to service commences with the twenty-second birthday, the nominal service being as follows: Two years in the active army, and ten in its reserve; followed by eight years in the territorial army and ten years in the territorial reserve, making a total period of thirty years. Practically, cavalry alone serve their full time in the active army. The territorial army and its reserve exists only on paper unless called for war, when it is estimated that the entire army strength would be fully 82,000 men, and the territorial army, 90,000. The peace strength consists of 1876 officers and 19,203 rank and file.

Regular army, 7000 officers and men; effective army, 56,900 men ; reserve, 30,000.

Availability for service is from 18 to 50 years of age.

The army, including the guard of the Government, numbers between 7000 and 8000 men.

The King is the constitutional head of the army, limited by the required indorsement of his actions by a minister responsible to Parliament. All citizens between 20 and 39 years of age are liable to service in either the standing army, mobile militia, or territorial militia. A great majority of the two latter divisions receive little or no training. The struggle of Italy to maintain the standing of a first-class power, with the limited financial resources at its command, makes the army a tremendous burden to the general population, and prevents entirely any high degree of general efficiency. The official statistics of the army for June, 1900, are as follows:

Service is compulsory with all males between the ages of seventeen and forty years, who are required to perform the following service: Standing army, three years; standing army reserve, five years. All males between seventeen and forty, not serving in either of the armies mentioned, are included in the national army or Landsturm. On December 31, 1900, the army consisted of 8046 officers, 158,214 men; including the reserve, Landwehr. first and second depots, the grand total was 632,007. It is entirely a product of recent times and is destined to be a leading factor in shaping the policy and future of the Orient. Early in 1902 a formal treaty of alliance was entered into with Great Britain which has made the military strength of Japan a practical factor in European politics. The army is organized on the German basis; German officers have been employed, and this, together with the ready adaptability of the Japanese soldier, has resulted in the creation of one of the most effective armies of modern times. Modern methods and machinery have been installed and nearly all the arms and ammunition, great and small, come from Japanese arsenals and manufacturing establishments.

Between 15,000 and 20,000 men, trained by Russian officers, constitute the standing army of Korea. The Russian instructors have now retired, but native officers trained in their methods carry on the work.

The regular army consists of about 1000 men with a militia and volunteer force of about 500. The period of liability for service is between 16 and 50 years of age.