SHORT MEN FOR SOLDIERS.

West Coast Times, Issue 2635, 10 September 1877, Page 3

SHORT MEN FOR SOLDIERS.

(PAXL MALL GAZETTE.)

t The standard of height for the German infantry is at present fixed at 1.57 metre, or about sft l^in. A medical man, writiug to a German "military paper, points out that by thus summarily rejecting all men who are below a fixed height, the State annually loses the services of a very large number of men who would make excellent soldiers. A short man, if well proportioned, will the writer argues, not only be ! able to make as long marches, and bear as much fatigue, as a taller man, but will even excel the latter in the power of endurance, The lengtis of pace and the *' cadence" which are employed with advantage by the one may not, it is admitted, sujt the other ; and a small man may not be able to use with full effect the weapon carried by bis larger brother-in-arms. But iet the short man march with a step suitable to his stature, and let him be armed with a firelock somewhat shorter in the stock, and the writer maintains that he will fje able tp render excellent service. Consequently, it ia proposed that all thp men who being below the required height;, are now rejected shall, provided always that jn pther respects they arc well developed^ be embodied in a separate corps — a corps which, jt is promised will soon contain, so far as, pbysjcjai perfqrmapces are cpnperned, tb.e elite pf infantry regiments,. If tjie pea§ure .rgund the fib,es.t aftpr esp jratjpn js equaj to hftlf his height, wd if the chest; js well fprmed POd was suffipient depth, a nja,u even though, t>vQ or three inches below the pres,pqt standard fqr the Qerman army, wj}{ be abje to d,o more wprk than many of the tellpr and by nq means so welUprpportJpngd. mep serving in the infantry. In the other arms jf iq admitted (hat a certain stature is essential. The mounted soldier must have a sufficient length of leg to enable him to mount and pit his horse, and the artilleryman must be tajl enqugh t° enable l)jm to work, to limber and unlimber his gnn ; but mere heijrht is, it is argued, in no way a necessary qualification for a man who has to fight on foot on a modern field of battle.