ARMY 384 



87,114; total, 711,575 men. Of this number 

 only the regular army and the reserve were 

 available for foreign service except in cases 

 where individuals or whole corps of the auxil- 

 iaries specially volunteered. However, before 

 conscription was put into effect over 5,000,000 

 men had answered their country's call between 

 August, 1914, and January, 1916. 



The total cost of the British army (exclusive 

 of troops for India, of which the cost is borne 

 by the Indian government) for a year of peace 

 is 28,000,000 (about $135,000,000), or about 

 $3 for each person in the kingdom. A com- 

 parison with the estimated cost of the Panama 

 Canal shows that in three years of peace the 

 British army in England, exclusive of its over- 

 sea forces, costs more than was needed to 

 complete the canal, which employed over 40,000 

 men in peaceful labors for seven years. The 

 administration of the army is in the hands of 

 an army council and a Secretary of State for 

 War. 



German Army. Since 1871, after the close 

 of the Franco-German War, there was compul- 

 sory military service in the empire until its fall. 

 Every male had to serve in the army or navy 

 unless mentally or physically unfit. At the 

 beginning of the European war in 1914 it was 

 estimated that the German Empire could raise 

 a fighting force of 7,900,000 men, all of whom 

 had undergone military training. The total 

 strength of the army in peace times was 770,000. 

 Each man was expected to serve either two or 

 three years in the standing army, and the bal- 

 ance of a term of seven years in the reserves, 

 after which he was drafted into the landwehr 

 (home defense force). At the age of thirty-nine 

 he left the landwehr for the landsturm, where he 

 remained until he reached the age of forty-five. 

 The landsturm consisted of those available for 

 service in an emergency, including both the 

 graduates of the landwehr and the younger men 

 who had escaped military training. Military 

 service might be required from the age of 

 seventeen, but actual training usually began at 

 twenty. Sometimes the term with the standing 

 army was reduced to one year in cases of men of 

 good education and intelligence. Each army 

 corps was recruited from a particular territory 

 and passed its time-expired men into the land- 

 wehr of the same district. The 'peace terms of 

 1919 definitely limited the German army to a 

 harmless 100,000 men. 



The total cost of the army in times of 

 peace was estimated at $210,000,000 per year, or 

 $3.23 per unit of population. The organization 



ARMY 



and adminstration was centralized in the kaiser 

 and a general staff. 



French Army. In the year 1872, as soon as 

 reconstruction could be effected following the 

 disastrous Franco-German War, compulsory 

 military service was legalized in France. The 

 form of conscription previously in force al- 

 lowed substitution; a man not desiring to 

 serve could pay another to take his place. This 

 led to abuses and substitution was abolished. 

 Under the law now in force three years must 

 be spent in the active army, eleven years in 

 the reserve, seven in the territorial army cor- 

 responding to the German landwehr, and seven 

 more in the territorial reserve corresponding to 

 the German landsturm. It is estimated that at 

 the outbreak of the War t)f the Nations in 

 1914 the troops of France totaled 703,000, of 

 which 134,000 were in colonial service, many 

 of them natives. Altogether there were nearly 

 5,000,000 trained men of military age, but it is 

 probable that considerably more than this 

 number were placed under arms between 1914 

 and 1919. The French soldiers are of rather 

 small stature, but are wiry, active and en- 

 thusiastic. Though experts had often expressed 

 the opinion that a French attacking force was 

 far superior to an equal French force on the 

 defensive, the War of the Nations proved the 

 heroic resistance of which France is capable. 



The yearly cost of the maintenance of the 

 French army in peace times is estimated at 

 290,000,000, or about $7.25 per unit of popula- 

 tion. The administration consists of a general 

 staff and a number of departments under the 

 Minister of War. 



Russian Army. After the Russo-Japanese 

 War the Russian army became almost an un- 

 known quantity until the outbreak of the War 

 of the Nations. That great changes had been 

 made and that the efficiency of the army as a 

 whole had been raised was proved by its rapid 

 mobilization and stubborn work in the first three 

 years of the war. 



The military system of Russia was similar to 

 that of Germany and France, each soldier serv- 

 ing in various ranks, active and inactive, from 

 his twentieth to his forty-third year. Cos- 

 sacks served for life (see COSSACKS). Active 

 soldiers at the beginning of the European war 

 in 1914 numbered probably about 1,300,000 

 and the reserves 6,000,000 or more. Estimates 

 of the number of other men available for 

 service range from 5,000,000 to 10,000,000. 



Russian soldiers are hard fighters, though 

 except in a few picked regiments their standard 



