Page:The New International Encyclopædia 1st ed. v. 02.djvu/53

ARMIES. In peace time the army consists of 32,143 officers and men; and in time of war between 144,000 and 148,000 officers and men. Service is from the twentieth to the fiftieth year.

Every inhabitant not physically incapable is trained as a soldier and is liable for service at any time. The number of trained men is given as 35,870 infantry, and 856 artillery. Officers are educated in Italy.

The army consists of about 10,000 trained infantry and 400 cavalry. There are also a few batteries of field guns and about 2000 irregular cavalry. In addition, there are about 8000 militia cavalry and 10,000 militia infantry. In the event of war, about 40,000 more men could be brought together; the trained troops are instructed by a few officers of various European nationalities.

The Dutch army is organized for home and colonial service. The home army is designed to guard the Amsterdam Position, which covers the capital, and also to garrison the New Holland Water Line, which protects the wealthiest and most important parts of the country. The army is formed partly by conscription and partly by enlistment, volunteers being in the minority. On June 1, 1900, the total strength of the army was 1911 officers and 25,762 men. On war footing it consists of 68,000 men, excluding officers.

The regular army consists of 2000 men; reserve, 10,000: National Guard, 5000. Norway. See under Sweden, below.

The army is practically an armed police, and consists of 82 officers and 1500 men.

The standing army does not exceed 25,000 all told; although nearly 54,000 are annually liable for service. Army organization is by provinces, tribes, and districts, the commanding officers being usually chiefs or leading men of the tribe or district from which the regiment is drawn. According to official returns of the minister of war, the army numbers 105,500 men.

The army on a peace footing consists of about 3400 men and a police force numbering between 2000 and 3000 men. There is a military school at Chorrillos, near Lima.

This army is recruited partly by voluntary enlistment and partly by conscription, under which all young men of twenty-one years of age are, with certain exceptions, obliged to serve. It consists in time of peace of 1868 officers, 31,578 men, 6479 horses and mules, and 160 guns. Its war strength is 4056 officers and 171,324 men, with 336 guns.

The regular army is divided into permanent and territorial divisions, each with a reserve; the militia and the levée en masse. Every Rumanian from his twenty-first to his forty-sixth year is liable to military service. In time of peace the army consists of 60,388 men in the permanent division, and 72,000 men in the territorial division. The war strength is placed at 3948 officers and about 170,000 men.

Since 1874, every male, with the exception of residents of outlying districts, has been liable to military service from the beginning of the twenty-first to the end of the forty-third year. Special laws govern the military service of Cossacks, Asian immigrants, and Caucasian Mohammedans. In the standing army, from four to five years is the period of service, and thirteen years in the militia reserve. Young

men of good education are released from the regulation period of army service under somewhat similar conditions to those of the one-year volunteers of Germany. About 1,200,000 men are annually liable to service; but the law permits many exceptions, and of the number who should join the forces each year, little more than half actually do so, which leaves a vast reserve of men with little or no training. The peace strength of the Russian army is almost as little known as its war strength. As a matter of fact, the probabilities are that the peace strength in many parts of the Empire is above that given in many published reports. Von Löbell, the German statistician and military historian, gives the total peace strength as at least a million, and the war footing as nearly 5,000,000 men. The Empire is divided into thirteen military districts under high general officers. For mobilization purposes these are again subdivided into twenty-three localities and the localities into circles. The organization comprises field troops, reserve troops, depot troops, fortress troops, local troops, and the imperial militia. The Russian officer is drawn almost exclusively from the governing ranks of society, and is by birth, training, and environment admirably adapted for his profession. The common soldier has many splendid qualities from the military point of view; among which may be enumerated great endurance, natural stoicism, implicit obedience and fidelity, and general indifference to death. Stolidity and general ignorance, however, constitute a great weakness, particularly when opposed to an enemy possessing the quick, alert, and resourceful intelligence demanded of the modern soldier. Infantry and rifle regiments are armed with a small bore, five-cartridge, magazine rifle: the heavy cavalry being similarly armed. Field and mountain artillery of the active army are supplied with steel breech-loaders of four different patterns. The following statement gives approximately the various divisions of the army: An infantry regiment consists of 70 officers, 1867 men; in war, 79 officers and 3945 men. There are 52 infantry divisions, 23 rifle brigades, 25 separate infantry brigades, 10 separate rifle battalions, 8 separate infantry battalions, 21 separate fortress regiments, and 12 separate fortress battalions. An infantry division consists of 2 brigades; a brigade of 2 regiments; a regiment of 4 battalions, and a battalion of 4 companies. The Cossack infantry consists of 6 Kuban battalions. (See article .) The regular cavalry is divided into 4 and 6 squadron regiments, the latter consisting of 38 officers and 1071 men, which in time of war is decreased to 36 officers and 948 men. There are 24 divisions, 5 brigades, 7 separate regiments, and 3 double squadrons of cavalry; 2 divisions of the guards, 17 divisions and 2 brigades of dragoons, and 6 divisions of Cossacks. Field artillery consists of 4 gun batteries in time of peace and 8 in war. Horse batteries have 6 guns in peace and war. Mortar batteries have 6 mortars each. The artillery consists of field, horse, guard, grenadier, and line brigades of batteries. There are 29 sapper battalions of engineers.

Regular army, 4000 men; militia, 25,000.

No statistics are available. The army, which is small, consists of infantry,