WAR CHESTS.

Evening Post, Volume LXXXVIII, Issue 30, 4 August 1914, Page 7

WAR CHESTS .

COMPARATIVE FIGURES. NAVAL STRENGTHS. (TIMES AND SYDNEY SIN SERVICKS.) LONDON, 2nd August. The latest returns of the national war chests are aa follow :— £ Austria ... / ,,. 47,000,000 Franco 189,000,000 Germany • 84,000,000 Britain 40,000.^0 Russia 174,000.000 Tho latest returns \of the naval strengths of the various' Pow«s are as wider :*- . Bnttlclilps, Cruisers. Prrroniiel. Britain ... 68 110 140,000 France ... 21 30 64,500 Russia ... 8 14 53.500 Germany ... 37 48 74,000 Italy ... It 1G 37,000 Austria ... 11 i 7 19,000 THE COMBATANT FORCES A COMPARISON^OF STRENGTHS, Europe is witnessing the most colossal action of armed men in the world's hisJ<»y, FiYeJP.owjere Java .their armies ac-1

tually in the field, and at a. modest estimate ten mil'ions of soldiers are armed and mobilised. It 13, how over, impossible to ghe a reliable approximation to the numbers in 'the field, because the war footing of an army is a variable quantity, and it is to the interests of each nation not to announce to what oxtent it has called upon its huge reserve of manhood. The following figures, however, givo the peace and war footings of tha nations concerned in the present situation, as they appear in the Daily Mail Year Book for 1914, and may be accepted as approximately correct as to thepeace footing-, but as extreme estimates of the war footing. The last column shows tho number of guns which can beput in tho field, but these figures cannot be relied upon, as no official figures are published. Peace War Guns Austria 396,000 2,500,000 2,000 Belgium ... 55,000 300,000 204 tFranco ... 730,000 4,000,000 3,000 *Great Britain. 239,000 380,000 (?)640 tlndia 159,000 195,000 — Germany ... 814,000 5,500,000 4,000 Russia 1,200,000 4,500,000 3,500 Scrvia (?) ... 36,000 300,000 400 fAnd Algeria. "Regulars only. +Nativo troops. The strength of the Servian Army was estimated prior to the Balkan War, so that tho figures given are probably incorrect. But, matting allowances on the most liberal scale, it is easy to realise what immense forces the present war wil! set in motion.