GERMAN SOLDIERS AND ENGLISH ATHLETES.

Otago Daily Times, Issue 10755, 20 March 1897, Page 2

GERMAN SOLDIERS AND ENGLISH ATHLETES.

Despits our robust insularity, a wholesome fear of our German rivals has (says the British Review) grown throughout the country. Recent speeches by members of both political paitie: have notbe»u calculated to allay ta.s sca>e. Yet the avwi^eEiigJishnmn stall finds toHSoit*'tion in two fists which he considers irrefatible. Nothiag his^ sbakea his belief in the unsurpassed physique of our working men; everything has pointed to the exhausting nature of the burden which compulsory military service imposes upon s rising commercial nation such as Germany. With so heavy a handicap in the race for the trade of the world, aha cannot, he thinks, do more than toil after us at a respectful distance. . - Every year soms 300,000 young Germans joia the ranks. Not all of their number receive the - full military training, but the great majority pass through a military course offering escsptional advantages for developing the physique. From half-starved villages and from close suffocating courts the most miserable &ra rescued for a time. They are taught to sqaare their shoalders and step out from the hips ; to keep clean and know the meaning of discipline. They live in sanitary barracks and are clad in^ suitable clothing. They htve already passed I through a strict mental training, which*, renders their physical education all the more necassary. That the latter is buccsasful is abundantly proved by the military statistics. For the last five or sis years average chest measurement has . steadily increased, and the German soldier of - the present is the German workman of the fufcura. When we have pat an idle loafec through two years of military service we cannot bat notice what a self-respecting, wellset up young fellow hs'has become. But we declare that we hsve found an alterative for military service in the aatioual enthusiasm for ■ athletic*. Our athletes, wa argue, obtain all the „ physical advantages ot conscription without costing the country a single penny. But S3 regards-any permanent phyMcal benefit to our huge operative dags, athleticism is but a broken reed for this country to lean upon. 16 is &a unpleasant feet, which, however, must be fscsd. The German, oa the contrary, is unsthletic ia his tastes. He_ objects to all violent sod, as he considers it, unnecessary exercise. But his military training, with its physical drill and gymnastic coursa, saves him from himself. It is a military dictum that, all a!se being equal, the army which is the heaviest in pounds avoirdupois wins the battle. It will ! be &n ill dsy for England when in the great j eoiaißercial struggle the workers who boast tha | broadest backs as well as the best-trained j braina ars " msde in Germany."