FRANCE. 



2GT 



MOBILIZATION EFFECTIVE. 



The nninber of horses, in addition to the peace effective, 

 ■which woukl be required upon mobilization of the army is 

 sui:)posed to be kept secret. This number can be roughly es- 

 timated from the number of army corps to be mobilized and 

 from the knowledge of the peace effective in horses. How- 

 ever, in a discussion on the budget a few years ago (1897) in 

 the chamber of deputies, the following table was officially 

 furnished as setting forth the needs of the war effective : 



These figures being for France proper, it will be seen that 

 the peace effective given is about 15 per cent less than the 

 peace effective for 1902. We may then say that to put her 

 army on a war footing for a great continental war, France 

 would need at the start at least 500,000 more horses than are 

 now in service, not taking later needs into account. 



These horses would undoubtedly be procured by requisition, 

 and it is for this reason that the census of animals fit for the 

 va^rious military requirements is taken each year in France. 

 This document contains all the data required by the war de- 

 partment for requisitioning horses, should the need arise. It 

 is not believed that the necessary number and quality would 

 be forthcoming from home sources. 



Experiments have been made at different times to test the 

 possibility of mounting regiments of reserve cavalry as the 

 law contemplates they should be mounted upon mobilization, 

 that is, by requisition. The results, even in horse-raising dis- 

 tricts, have not been satisfactory ; in two weeks' time sufficient 

 numbers of cavalry animals were not found in the territories 

 assigned to the regiments to mount their men. About one- 

 fourth the horses taken were light-draft and not saddle horses. 



Now of the 500,000 horses needed immediately upon mobil- 

 ization, about one-half are saddle horses for the artillery and 



