THE FUTURE OF MODERN ARMIES.

New Zealand Mail, 17 September 1902, Page 71 (Supplement)

THE FUTURE OF MODERN ARMIES.

(“Spectator.")

•The dispute now raging in France over the Government' proposal to reduce the term of compulsory service in barracks to two years is one, as we believe, qf extreme significance. France being at once the most military of nations and tho one must susceptible to new ideas, her examplo is almost sure sooner or later to persuade Europe; and it seems almost certain that sho intends this example should bo set. The older Generals, it is true, and probably a majority of the officers, are bitterly against the scheme. They say that the French character is inherently opposed to passive obedien9e, and that it takes at least three years to bnng tbo conscript to tho necessary attitude of mind. He has not the German leverence for superiors, or the German’s habit of deference towards all who aro legally entitled to give orders. They doubt if lie will remain to be a non-com-missioned officer, and ask. with a persistence that rather disconcerts tne treasury, where, if the "sous-olficer” is to bo retained by h’gher pay, the money is to come from. They seo that the Soc’alrst idea of substituting the Swiss system of trained militia for that of regular aiimes gams ground yearly among tin peasantry, and they believe that it will be directly promoted by the abolition of exemptions which will render the entire aiT- j._ e ass > w ho how to the number ot thirty-seven thousand serve only for one year, bitterly hostile to barrack life. Iho consequence, they predict, will be a further general reduction to one year, and then the adoption of the Swiss system of an armed militia trained a® soldiers for six months only, and though excellent for defence, useless for conquest, or indeed for any work beyond the frontiers. I lie colonies, they assert, under such a system must be given up, and tlie foreign policy of France placed upon an entirely new basis and directed to unthoneht- r 'f ends. Thev .fear, too, we fancy, though t.hev keen back this argument; that Hisoldiers, being less of a caste, wdl be less willing to put down rioters, and that the populace will regain that “right of revolt which has been so nearly extinguished by the adoption of scientific weapons.

These arguments, supported as they are by the tradition which in France ascribes all merit to "veterans,” and put forward by those who lead opinion within the army itself, have formidable weight; but nevertheless the Government adheres to its proposal. The Germans, its advocates say have adopted it, and “are French soldiers less capable of instruction than Herman?’ The abolition of exemptions, they affirm, is demanded by the princ*file of equality and by the teinner of tlie French soldier, who murmurs with ever-increasing bitternes-s against these privileged conscripts;” while the 0111 S v c £ tlie non-commissioned officer ■Vi i. affects all armies can be met, and mil be met. by tlie grant of reasonable pensions. ■ The defensive strength of the country -will not, it is added, be impaired, for a reservist is the best of soldiers; and as to wars of conquest, they aluays produce a rush of reservists to the front. These arguments aro at least as strong as those of tlie Generals, especially as they aro supported bv the whole history of the Boer war, which has been watched in France, it must be remembeml, with keen sympathy for the half-drilled side, and by the American victories in Cuba; and there is one behind them which is stronger than them all The French masses are not weary of war or of military life—a fact proved by the con tinned supply of officers—but they are sick to death of compulsory life in barracks. .They are all getting educated in a degree, they have all imbibed something of the modern thirst for comfortable life, and they all regard the thiee years of unpaid slavery in barracks with passionate resentment. It is believed that the one imperative mandate *iven by the poorer electors to the majority of deputies is to vote for tho reduction from three years to two; and ..such mandates aro in France rarely disobeyed. The h’.ji, therefore, whatever its consequences will m all probability pass, with this f'r its first result. The older officers, distrusting its effects, will insist, as the German officers have done, on “intensive” discipline, that is, more and harder work more implicit, or, so to speak, automatic obedience, and greater rigour of disciplinary punishments. This will produce a discontent which, as the educated will direct it, will speedily be manifested at every election in demands either for iurther reduction, or for the abrogation ™°!' e or complete, of the barrack systenv. The electors will begin by asking that all electors should be placed in the position now occupied bv tlie privileged conscripts, and end with demanding that France be defended, like Switzerland. by a trained militia.