The Monmouth inquirer., 1897-07-22
TIE GREEK ARMY.
A Nominal Peace Strength of Thirty
Thousand Men.


A Nominal Peace Strength Of Thirty
Thousand Men.
In view of current events in east
ern Europe a glance may be taken at
the present strength and condition OF
the Greek army, which has recently
been noticed at some length in the
German military papers. It will not
be out of place to recall the fact that
last December the king sent special
message to his prime minister dwell
ing on the necessity of reorganizing
the army. With that objct the king
proposed the formation of permanent
camp near Thebes and the calling out
of the reserves, so that an army OF
10000 men efficient in all particulars
might be ready to take the field at
moments notice. The kings message
concluded as follows: Il hope that
these measures will enable us to at
tain the object pursued during so
many years while the Hellenic army
has been diverted from its principal
aim. / feel the need of recalling 1t 10
the only occupation worthy OF It's
mission. The realization of my strong
est desire, which is the constitution
of an army worthy of its mission, will
be inaugurated by the establishment OF
a permanent camp, which | contide to
the care of my government" One de-
duction may be safely drawn from that
message. The military position OF
Greece was not satisfactory in the
ewes of its sovereign last December,
and it is quite impossible for 1t to
have made much real progress IN the
brief interval.
The nominal peace strength OF the
Greek army is set down at 10000 men,
and it has been assumed on the faith
of official returns that it could be in
creased on the outbreak of hostilities
to so 900 men, while the reserves num-
bers another 100000 Some years ago
the peace strength was reduced to 27,-
600 from motives of economy, and on
examination it would be found that
these totals give an exaggerated view
of Greece's military strength. The
permanent force is divided into twen-
ty-seven infantry and nine lager bat
talions, three cavalry regiments OF
four squadrons each, eight field, eight
mountain and four garrison batteries
and three engineer battalions. AS the
troops are only armed with Gras and
Chassepot rifies-of which there is a
grand total of less than 10000 IN
store and in the hands of the troops
they would be at disadvantage when
pitted against troops armed with mag
azine rifles; but the artillery consists
of Krupp breechloaders and there is
a very large supply of cartridges in the
arsenals. The weak point of the Greek
army is the reserve, the greater part
of which is practically unframed, for
the period of forty days training every
two years is purely nominal and has
never been strictly enforced. It is be-
lieved that two-thirds of the reserve
have never been trained at all The
establishment of a permanent camp
at Thebes was intended as first step
toward the more efficient training OF
the reserve, but sufficient time has not
elapsed to give the experiment fair
trial. The kingdom is divided into
three military districts-Larissa, Mis-
solonghi and Athens. Four infantry
battalions, one cavalry regiment and
the bulk of the artillery are quartered
at Athens. There is an equally strong
garrison at Larissa, but with these ex-
ceptions the regiments are usually
quartered in single stations. The de-
ficienetns of the Greek army come un-
der the heads of armament, mobility
and an unframed reserve. For defen-
sive operations they would prove less
glaring than if the army were sub
jected to the strain Of an offensive
campaign beyond Greek territory
London Times.
~, NTaurier,s Wit