AUSTRIA'S FORCES.

Auckland Star, Volume XLIV, Issue 196, 18 August 1913, Page 5

AUSTRIA'S FORCES.

BIG INCREASE PLANNED. (Received 10.15 a.m.) VIENNA, August 17. It is proposed to raise the annual recruit levy to 2G0.000. Of the" additional 40.000, 20.000 will be for army, 2,000 for the navy, and the remainder for the I—ndwehr. It has also been decided to increase the cavalry and artillery. I This increase in tbe numbers of the A-ustro-Huugariaa contingents of recruits will eventually raise ihv war strength of the Dual Monarchy to nearly 2.000,000 men. Thus the, proud boa3t that Germany and Austria together dispose of (3.000,000 trained and nnncd men to carry out their combined "Well* Politik" is merely the statement of a fact. That these men are of the lirst quality and well disciplined all m::st allow, but their armament is not considered by experts to he as good as ik ! ought to be. Tin- German and Austrian rifles are both good arms, but the tirtililery of neither Fowen- is not as good as the French or the British. "The Balkan war proved the relative inferiority of the Krupp to the Crcusot, j while the latest British field gun is at least equal to the excellent weapon in the hands of the French. The Austrian artillery is held in very light esteem by experts—Austria has clung to the steel-bronze type, which is not capable of resisting the high temperatures generated by modern explosives in the same manner as steel can. Therefore, it U ne-ossary to use weaker powder with .-- steel-bronze gun. So the new Austrian field gun has a muzzle velocity of -196. co?upared with the muzzle velocities of SUO to nearly 000 metres a i-econd of steel guns used everywhere. To re-arm the forces with steel guiio would coat over £12,000,000, and ac yet no appropriation _aa ibeea taken for this purpose.