Big Battalions

New Zealand Tablet, Volume XXXI, Issue 20, 14 May 1903, Page 2

Big Battalions

' This is a very respectable age,' says the Genial Showman, ' but It's pretty easily riled ; and considering upon how slight a provocation we who live in it g o to cuttin' each others' throats, it may, perhaps, be doubted whether our intellects is so much massiver than our ancestors' intellecks was after all.' We do our throaV slitting, it is true, by machinery ; we don't commonly beat the brains out of the wounded upon the battlefield ; and we have never acquired a taste for the kidneyfat of our fallen foe. But in one respect we are verging back, to the savage state of warfare, when every adult male was compelled to be a warrior, and the tribe's standing army counted the full strength of its manhood. Some 31,000 men altered the map of Europe at Crecy in 1346. The relative bagatelle of about 100,000 fighters decided the fate of Waterloo in 1815. Jn 1859 Sir Arthur Phelps did some heavy moralising— we might term it philosophical swearing— when he computed, after a vast deal of figuring, that the armies of Europe in that year numbered no fewer than 2,000,000 fighting men. As a matter of fact, the number was far greater. In 1889— just thirty years after the publication of Sir Arthur's scandalised reflections — Europe had become a vast armed camp : its eighteen co/untries had a total of 3,3r>2,000 men constantly under arms as a State (insurance agiainst ,war. In the event of hostilities they could have called out no fewer than 9,366,000 soldiers with sufficient knowledge of the throat-slitting business to look tolerably well on parade and to fire a bullet more or less in the direction of the enemy. The current issue of the ' Daily Mail Year-Book ' shows that Europe's bloated armaments still continue to 'bloat' and that the Continental Great Poweis are moving steadily towards the savages' resort of an army that shall include all males capable of carrying and using a lethal weapon. Great Britain's insular position saves her the trouble of maintaining great land forces, but she i 9 busy pouring into her , war-ships greater tieasaires than her dear neighbors are lavishing upon horse and foot and artillery and engineers. Here is an interesting table from the ' Year-Book ' :—: —

tails, Donn,\ brook fashion, by ever and ever moie mcreahave a peace establishment of 2,193,108 men, and en a war footing could muster a giand apgiegate of 12,120,000 wisps of cannon-fodder. * The Continentals are continually trailing then coattails I)onn,\ brook lashion, by cv er and p\ cr mote mci casing their aimamcnts by land Croat Brita'n is „s constantly challenging all and sundry by peisistent increase in her war-expenditure by sea In 1888-9 her n.0.il expenditure ran into £12,999,895 Ten \eais latei —in 1898-9— it had i iscn to £24-, 0(58,000 And the net estimate for the current year (1903-4) is £3 I,4,~>7,O(togreater than the combined cost of the na\ies ol Fiance, Russia, and Cermany for last j oar ; for Ceinianv and Russia were each content with a naval expenditure of £.10,500,000, and France with £12,200,000, „n time thus showing a joint total of £33,200,000 It seems to be generally understood that the Continental Cie.it Powers set the pace in the matter of bloated n.ival expenditure In reality Great Britain is the pace-mal et During the past ten \enrs the combined increase in naval expendituie of Fiance, Germany, and Russia was £12, 500, 000. Croat Britain's meiease in the <ame period soared to £20,000,000 • This mania for \ast and costly annies and iumis must end either in a partial disarmament oi in the bankruptcy of the weaker nations It cannot go on indefin'iteU Joid V\ olselev was not m l.ixoi ol cumbrous armies He claimed that with 2<> 000 tiamed lanatics he could cut his way through FJuiope And Captain Otto Piendt, the Austrian stafl-ofhc er, seen s to share the opinion of the Bntish G.neial In his work, ' Figures ami War,' he is not by any means enthusiast v as to the value ol the stupt nilousK \ast ngglomet ales of armed men that would cover the face of Kuio|c in the e\ent of a great war. ' l'eihaps,' he says, ' some Alex-

ander or Buonaparte may arise, who, at the head of a small army of picked men, may fall upon that heavy and unwarlike mass and disperse " them in all directions. Then nations may, perhaps, resort to the system of armies small in number, but composed of trained men, and perhaps they will let those men have the exclusive pri\ilege of a trade which, after all, is not congenial to peaceful citizens.' 'Tis a consummation devoutly to be wished.

Country. Prance Expenditure £28,800,000 Peace Strength. 589,000 "WaiSt i ength 3,500,0r0 3 or manyRussia 33,300,000 36,000,000 604,1 OR 1,100,000 4,000, ()(>() 4,<>20 000 3reat Britain 29,745,(100 275,7(>1 ()SO,OOO