THE "DEAR" LITTLE BRITISH ARMY.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XLIV, Issue 13491, 18 May 1907, Page 5 (Supplement)

THE "DEAR" LITTLE BRITISH ARMY.

Oik '"little British Army" cost* a great deal more, man for man, than the legions of France. Germany and Russia. Look at these figures, which are given on the authority of Mr. Haldane, our present Secretary for War:—-

Men in time -Annual cost. of peace. i. United Kingdom... 195.000 25.3)1.003 France ... ... 662.6*2 .470.698 Germany 6H.253' 36.770.883 Eußsia ... ... 1,225,009 39.373.^1 Now, if we work out these huge quantities of men and millions, we shall find that I the British army is more than twice as I costly, size for size, as that of France, or of Germany, and about four times as expensive as that of Russia. What is the meaning of it? Practically, the whole and sole explanation is this—that our Tommy Atkins is a great deal better treated than are the fighting men of the principal European nations. He is given better food, and more of it; as a rule, better housing, and certainly more money. The daily pay of Private Atkins is not munificent, perhaps— [in fact, we are quite sure that he could spend a little more without getting fat or lazybut even his tenpence or elevenpence a day is absolute luxury compared with the farcical wage meted "out to the rank and tile of many of the great Continental armies.

j in Russia, especial!}-, military glory is i supposed to compensate a man for the ab- 1 sence of pocket-money, for the pay of many I it private soldier in the legions of the Tsar jis; a miserable halfpenny or penny per i day! Scarcely less penurious is the wage! of the Italian Tommy," and, indeed, the J "peace" army of Italy, though consider-! ably larger than ours, is maintained at ] something like half the total expense. The! Turkish soldier is, perhaps, the worst oil' of all, for not only is his "pay" ridiculously low, but for most of the "time it is months in arrear. Yet this has never damped the ardour of the doughty Moslem, who swings into action with smiling eyes and a song upon his lips, even* inch a! •"first-class fighting man. 1 ' "Th© peace armies*" mentioned above do not represent anything like the full military resources of the leading Powers. Rus- j sia, in time of war, is supposed to be able to mobilise five million of men, though it is doubtful whether more tlian half that number could be raised at 'the present time. Germany, if war broke out, could call live millions to its standard, France' nearly four and a-lialf millions, Italy three millions, and Austria about two and a-half millions ; while even Turkey has a nominal war strength of a million and a-half. How odd it is to compare these huge legions 'with the liliputian armies of some j of the tiny republics and ' principalities of th© Continent. Luxembourg, which is j styled a Grand Duchy, although no larger than the county of. Berkshire, has an; " army'' consisting of 325 officers and men, a record in smallness easily beaten by the principality of Monaco, with its army of 126 officers and men. Perhaps the tiniest military force in the world is that of the diminutive Republic of San Marino. "'The exact extent of its present roll-call we do not know, but what the army of San Marino lacks in numbers it makes up for in the splendour of its uniforms, and the fact, that about every fourth man is a colonel. There is one nation, and only one, that spends proportionately more upon its army than Great Britain—namely, the United States of America/where a standing army, numbering no more than 67,000 men, entails an annual expenditure of eighteen millions sterling. America, like all the more civilised nations, believes in reduced armaments, and looks hopefully forward to the era of universal peace ; and it may safely be assumed" that in the. forthcoming peace congress at the Hague all her endeavours will be used on behalf of the reduction of the hug© war organisations now maintained by all the civilised Powers. But if peace brings happiness, what an earthly paradise should be th© negro Republic of Liberia,which alone among the nations of the world maintains no army whatever