THE BELLIGERENT ARMIES.

Auckland Star, Volume XLVI, Issue 61, 12 March 1915, Page 7

THE BELLIGERENT ARMIES.

THEIR RELATIVE STRENGTHS. ESTIMATE FEI MR- HILAIRE BELLOC. GERMANIC FORCES 5,000,000. ALLIED' ARMIES 6,500,000. Mr. Hilaire Bel'.oc, foremost military writer in Euroiw, in an article reviewing the strength of the contending armies and the result.-! of the fighting at the expiration of six. months from the declaration of war, arrisros at the following condusions: — The German Einph-e was able to put into the fieU in Vhv first phase of the war trained, equipped men of military age approaching 4.50 0..000. Counting men partly trained whom it tould incorporate in the early operations mnd picked men past military age, but volunteering for s-jrviee and accepted, the German Empire probably was able to put into the field durii ig the first phase of the irar (which is coming to an end) 5,000,000 men. Austria-Hungary during the same phase put into the field ribout 3.000.000 men. In the c:ise of th is latter there is more confusion than in tile case of the German Empire. The Austro-Kungarians. although not quite equal to the- German population (about SO per cent, or four-fifths) do not train in proportion so large a number as the Germans. In the first great 1 svy Austria-Hungary counted on a consi ierable force which would be of military quality long before the end of the first jihase of the war. Austria-Hungary <:ertainly accounted for 3,000.000. We add the 5,000.000 of the German Empire and get S. 00"5.000 for the Germanic allies in the first phase of the comsat. FRANCE HAD* 3.000.000. To the west, the French forces., nominally some 4.000.000 in number, but in reality, probably S.OOO.CUK). what with the joss of men over certain age in a country which trained every available man. (France trained every nun who was at all fit: Germany only trained just over half the men, and what witlh equipment less complete than Germany.' France did not stand in the first for more than 1.000,000.) To this must be added, certain Belgian forces, regular and irregular, w-hich might Ik set down to <ir a little more, and the far greater part of which was sacrificed in the heroic .attempt of that little nation to preserve its honour and maintain the public law of Europe. There must also be added a British contingent, consisting in origin of no more than any expeditionary force, nominally 50,000 in number, but realjy eonsiderablv fess. ENGLAND ADDS 350,000. But this expeditionary force was so Tapidly swelled by sending out further trained bodies from Great Britain during the first phase—ar rather before the close of it—that Great Britain must stand for a-third of a million men. You had then at the utmost 3.500,000 men in the west opposed to the Germanic powers. In the east, you nxust put the little, but exceedingly efficient Serbian army— the whole manhood of the nation as left after two exhausting Balkan wars—at 250,000 men. What were the Russians—that is the one indeterminate factor, and the first circulation of the total number of soldiers, regular and irregular, which Russia could nominally put into the field might be near 5,000,000.

If we say that ac a maximum the Russians could put forward, in the first phase of the war. 2,750.000 men we are exaggerating, not belittling, their power. So in the grand total we find the Germanic allies, in the middle of Europe, going to war with 8,000,000, and having against them on the west, say, 3,500.000; upon the east, barely 3.000,000. That is the foundation stone of any calculation upon the numerical aspect of the great war. Turning to the question of -wastage during the war, Mr. Belloc states that there is great difficulty in arriving at accurate figures, but he advances reasons for believing the figures set out in the following ■tatement to be approximately accurate:

Mr>n iu Nations. Field. German .. 3.0011.000 Austria .. S.OOOX'Ml Total „ S.000.000 France .. 2.000.000 Belginm.. 150,000 England... 350.0U0 Kerbia ... 2rx>.ono Bnssia ... '2.750.000 Total .. 6,500,000 Kilind and Wonuded. I.r50.000 l..TOO,UOO 3.250,000 750.000 T5.0O0 . 80.000 50,000 730,000 1.705,000 Prisoners. XjO.OOO 300,000 G50.000 loO.OOO 25,000 a).ooo 10,000 150,000 355,000