Iron County register. [volume] (Ironton, Iron County, Mo.) 1867-1965, 1893-09-21
CHINA AS a MILITARY POWER.

4 =
An Immense But Undisciplined Force and
No Commanders.
Ever since China began to show an
interest in the world outside her bor-
ders, and her people began to push out
as emigrants and colonists in peace
full conquest of the lands in and around
the Pacific, the speculation in regard
to what would happen if the war spirit
OF the nation should be reused and
Chinese armies and fleets should set out
for career of conquest have raised
discussion and occasional forebodinp
The immense numbers of the Chinese
have been the main factor in arousinp
this interest A nation that has a pop
ulation of nearly four hundred million
and commands some forty million men
capable of bearing arms can at
least impress the imagination. The
extent to which it has impressed
the imagination of Europe and Amer
lea finds testimony in the fanciful
works that deal with the wars of the
future and attempt to guess the causes
that will put an end to the nations of
to-day. In most of these works the in
exhaustible armies of China supply the
force that ovcrwhelms the western ma
tions.
China as possible future military
power may cut an impressive figure,
but In the present she need not be very
terrifying to the western nations. The
Tonquin war of nine years ago did not
show her to advantage, but it is limited
that great improvements have taken
place since that date. Certain it is that
China has been buying large quantities
OF modern arms. Rifles have been Sc
cured from Europe and America. Krupp
guns line the forts. Chinese arsenals
are turning out arms and ammunition
under the direction of German officers
FOrtresses have been built and the
navy enlarged.
just what is going on behind the
walls of Chinese exclusion of foreign
ers can be known only vaguely, but
from reports that reach the outside
world it appears that China has not
progressed far enough in its warlike
education to think of competing with a
large European army. The nominal
war strength of the Chinese army is
given by various statisticians at about
one million men, but most of these are
believed to be wretchedly armed and
little better in the matter of discipline
than raw levies. The trained force is
about one hundred thousand men.
This force would be formidable in
contest with France by reason of the
distance from the French source of
supplies and the danger that any large
drain of men to the east would en-
danger France in case of war in Eu-
rope. There is, however, no longer
doubt that the Chinese make
good fighting material. When prop
erly trained and led they lack
neither courage nor steadiness. The
course of the Tonquin war and the
troubles with China tlsAt followed it
showed that the Chinese troops fought
the better the longer the war con-
tinued. They learned how to fight
from the example of their enemies.
But the main difficulty with the
Chinese army, according to an officer
who has actsd as it's instructor, is lack
of material for commanders. It is
easy, according to this authority, to
supply non-commissioned officers, but
it is rare that a soldier develops into an
or even company. If this defect con-
tinues the Chinese army can never be-
come formidable. The lack may be
supplied to a degree by importing for
eigu officers, but a nation that can not
supply officers fit for independent or
even higher subordinate commands can
not do much as military power.-San
Francisco Examiner.