Barton County democrat. [volume] (Great Bend, Kan.) 1885-1915, 1891-06-11
THE BRITISH ARMY.

THE BRITISH ARMY.
fss Numerical Strength and Relative
weakness In Peace and War.
The total expenditure on the army,
out Of taxes. in the year in the case of
ths United Kingdom was last year,
oceordfng to Sir Charles Dixie, SIC, ,500,-
90 says the London Saturday Review,
9nd In India the same or SIS, 100000
(E3<s s0o0. 900 In the present year, besides
The expenditure out of loans and that of
the eeh-guverning colonies for the
armies Of the British empire The col
o0ies altogether spend for themselves
about 81, 5oo, 900 a year for army pur-
poeee. tn addition to the contributions
made hy some OF them toward the i'm
pef4Al forces and toward marine de-
4enee. While the armies of the British
empue cost about fS5, SOC, 600 q year,
the German empire costs about eSs, ,50o,-
600 and tho French army a little over
E3a. ooo. 900.
Our armies cost rs, therefore, consid-
erably moro than theirs, but while each
of these powers would have IN the field
on the twenty-frst day Of mobilization
over 2,ooo, 900 Of men, with between
5000 and 1000 guns, and behind this
vast force . large garrison and terri
torial army in reserve, we could alto
gether muster but S5o.e men from all
the resources at our command. But the
ingenious Briton viii reeort that,
! though our forces are small, they are o.
exceptional quality: that one English
man is equal to two Frenchmen; that
ono volunteer is as good as two pressed
| men. and SO on-und so weiter, etc
Not so.
The a,OOo, 600 active German or French
troops, of whom we have just spoken,
| are pretty much the same all.through''
that is to say, they are of uniform
quality, even if it be granted that their
standard be not as high as ours Our
muster-roll, on the contrary, is built up
| from the most heterogeneous sources,
| and the quality, when the training and
| education of the soldier are considered.
if in some eases high. is in others de
| plorable. The total we arrive at is
| made up of 10000 troops. excellent
| though deficient in some particulars;
| $4,000 to 81, 900 6rst-claSs army reserve,
useful but not periodically drilled as is
| the reserve of every continental army;
| 1900 second-class army reserve, hardly
worth counting; 11S,000 militia, who
| may be said to be without half their
| officers; 5000 Channel island militia;
| about 900 Malta and st. Helena militia;
II, 900 yeomanry; 2si-oo0 volunteers; "a
| 600 regulars in India Undoubtedly a
| splendid force), 6S,00O good native
| troops in India; So, 600 bad native troops,
| and 21-Oeo of what Sir Charles Dixie
| terms ''odds and ends
| In other words, the figures we can
| produce include everything we can pos
| sibly term soldier, from n guardsnan
to native policeman They include
4 some regiments of Indian infantry
| which are recognized even by ourselves
| as worthless. and whom we from time
to time disband as such. They include
the st. Helena militia and the Royal
Irish consta bulary, who, however eff
4 cient In their own sphere, would proba-
I bly, De 50 occupied IN III tzaas tzrey cs1
hardly be available to fight a foreigneF.
But, more than this, not only is our
force thus variable and sometimes un-
satisfactory as regards the quality of
its component parts, but IT is singularly
badly proportioned as regards the arms
of which it is composed
| If there is one thing which recent ex-
| periments have established more than
| another, and upon which there is COM
plete unanimity of opinion among mill
tary men, it is this-tha1 modern armies
should in future campaigns be remark
ably well furnished with both cavalry
and artillery; infantry viii be unable
to face modern musketry unless they
are well supported by guns, and have
the way of their attack prepared for
them by artillery fire A thick veil of
horsemen will shroud the movements of
II MT nd
an army which has not a strong force
of cavalry, both to gain information for
it and to ward OF its opponents scouts,
viii be at the mercy of better-informed
antagonist
1t will neither be able to see nor re-
main unseen Yet how do we find that
our attenuated levies are furnished with
these necessary adjuncts? Contempt
bly, so, il seems, as regards artillery.
We have but a nominal GOO guns all told,
against 1000 10 1000 belonging to the
powers that may oppose rs, and of
these we could not place above $50 In
the field
Not only have we an absurcIly small
number Of batteries. but we propose on
an outbreak of hostilities to reduce
them by fourteen IN order to make up
| ammunition columns. That Is to sag,
we organize, equip and educate scien-
tific body of men in order that theymsy
on the outbreak OF hostilities be equal
to the duties which Picl1fords or Carter
Paterson's draymen daily perform IN
our streetsi The Germans on October
last added to their artillery almost as
. many guns as we have IN the whole
world, and Rounania and Switzerland
can each of them put II the field about
| as many guns as can the British empire.
| Nor when we come to anaiyze our cav
| airy returns are matters more reaSsur-
ing. We have only 1900 horses to
mount 10. 900 troopers both in India and
at home together
Woman's Chances ri Forty.
, II don't care If / am an old maid -