The Roanoke times. [volume] (Roanoke, Va.) 1890-1895, 1891-06-24
THE BRITISH ARMY.
Its Numerical Strength and Relative
Weakness i'm Peace and War.

Ouo OI taxes, IN the year In the case OF
the United Kingdom was last year,
according to Sir Charles Dixie, e10, $780,
600, says the London Saturday Review,
and in India the same or g33, 900, 600
(f3I,000,Oo0 in the present year,, besides
the expenditure. out of loans and that of
the self-governing colonies for the
armies of the British empire. The col
onics altogether spend for themselves
about s1,500,000 year for army pur-
poses, in addition to the contributions
made by some of them toward the i'm
perial forces and toward marine de-
tense. While the armies of the British
empire cost about ESQ, $780, 900 year,
the German empire costs about e33, $780,
600 and the French army Il little over
EOS, 100000.
Our armies cost us, therefore, consid-
erably more than theirs, but while each
OF these powers would have in the field
on the twcnty-first day of mobilization
over 100000 of men, with between
5000 and 1900 guns, and behind this
vast force Il large garrison and terri
torial army i'll reserve, we could alto
gcther muster but S50,000 men from all
the resources at our command. But the
ingenious Briton will rctort that,
though our forces are small, they are of
exceptional quality; that one English
man is equal to two Frenchmen; that
one volunteer is as good as two pressed
men,. and so on-und so wciter, etc.
Not so.
The 1000, 600 active German or French
troops, of whom we have just spoken,
are pretty much the same allthrough"
mt &c 10 "a
quality, even if it bc granted that their
standard be not as high as ours. Our
lnuster-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 cases 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 $4,000 frst-class army reserve,
useful but not periodically drilled as is
the reserve of every continental army;
1000 sccond-class army reserve hardly
worth counting; $4,000 militia, who
may be said to be without half their
officers; 5000 Channel island militia;
about 900 Malta and st. Helena militia;
1900 yeorlanry; 224.O volunteers; a.
600 regulars in India Undoubtedly
splendid forcc), $1,000 good native
troops in India; Sc, 1000 bad native troops,
and $1,000 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 a guardsman
to n native policeman. They include
90
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 constabulary, who, however efii-
cient in their own sphere, would proba-
bly, be SO occupied in it that they can
hardly be available to fight foreigner.
But, more than this, not only is our
force thus variable and sometimes I'M
satisfactory as regards the quality of
its component parts, but it is singularly
badly proportional as regards the ar1rs
of which it is composed.
If there is one thing which recent cx-
periments have established more than
another, and upon which there is com
pletc unanimity of opinion among mill
tary men, it is this-that modern armies
should in future campaigns he remark
ably well furnished with both cavalry
and artillery; infantry will be unable
% face modern musketry unless they
are we'll supported by guns, and have
the way of their attack prepared for
them by artillery fire. \ thick veil of
horscmcn will shroud the movements of
modern army from its opponent and
an army which has not strong force
of cavalry, both to gain information for
it and to ward Off its opponents scouts,
will 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? Contcmpti-
bly, SO, it seems, IS regards artillery.
We have but L nominal 600 guns all told,
against 1000 to 1000 belonging to the
powers that may oppose us, and of
these we could not place above 800 in
the field.
Not only have we an abs,rdly small
number of batteries, but we propose On
an outbreak OF hostilties to reduce
them by fourteen in order to make up
ammunition columns! That is to say,
we organize, equip and educate n scion
tific body of men in order that they may
on the outbreak of hostilitics lie equal
to the duties which Picl1fords or Carter
Patcrson's draymcn daily perform in
our streets! The Germans on October
last added to their artillery almost US
many guns as we have in the whole
world, and Roumania and Switzerland
can each Of them put in the field about
as many guns as can the British empire.
Nor when we come to analyzc our cav
airy returns are matters more rcassur-