THE GERMAN ARMY.

NZ Truth, Issue 483, 19 September 1914, Page 3

THE GERMAN ARMY.

No Love Lost .'*■'■ ■ . • ." - § ■ '■ . ) . ... Between Officers and Rank and File. There has resided m Maoriland for about eight years, a Danish citizen, who, m consequence of the arinexaation of his' native province,- Schleswig Holstein, by the Germans, was 'compelled.to serve on the German army. He left the-ranks when he ;was 23 and by far the most vivid, impression he . retains of his service is the rigor of the discipline, the severity of the punishment for breaches and the tremendous gap between officers and soldiers. The men m the ranks are not m,- , spired by. love for, or confidence m, their officers, and it is certain that, at such a time as this, . , A COMPLETE INTERCHANGE OF ', OFFICERS between the different army corps will i have taken, place; TJiis is necessary m ! order to prevent accidents '(?)', as the i men, m the attitude to their ofllcersson active service, are very dangerous. It is quite possible that, were the men left m charge of the officers under whom they serve m peace time, these officers would fall, stricken by the bullets of their own men, during the first engagement. This hatred is brought about by the supremacy of military authority over civil law. Say, for instance^ that a soldier fails to return to barracks at nine o'clock at night It is possible that his first lapse will be punished by the infliction of greater periods of drill; a second offence would be punished "by detention m a military gaol and incarceration there means Vgreat- hardships. The army regulations, however, give the, common soldier the right of appeal against injustice, even 'though it may be necessary that his appeal should go to the supreme authority of the Kaiser. 'Certain prescribed methods of appealing are set out' and it is peculiar that,, if these methods arc?not ob-. served to the i letter, . the appellant, as often as not, will be punished for dilatoriness and have. his appeal finally dismissed. - " : ' . Such a rigorous condition of service

makes it very probable that THE STORIES OF DESERTION which are now to hand, "are quite true, for, even at times of peace, iho desertions all the year round are very numerous. Tho punishment, m peace limes, for desertion often amounts to two or. throe years additional service, together with the sacrifice erf all civil rights. During his last year of service our informant was an orderly m what Is known as the Casino. Here great maps of European countries arc mounted on tables about twice the size of ordinary billiard tables nnd, under a general's direction, the various staff officers move. v/Kh cucs-palnted blocks, representing their divisions of the army corps. In this matter they have traversed the rnapo of every nation,

and bur informant is now watching WITH A PECULIAR INTEREST what. appears to be the utter failure of the tactics so popular among German military men.