Evening star., 1924-02-21
GERMANY HAS AS MANY SOLDIERS
PREPARED TO FIGHT AS FRANCE
Illegal Reserves of Officers, College Students, and
Enlisted Men Intensely Drilled in Aantici-
patton of Day of ReUenge.
BY CONSTANTINE BROWN.
Correspondence Of The Star and Chicago Daily
News Foreign Service

by CONSTANTINE BROWN.
Of The Star and Chicago Daily
News Foreign Service.
PARIS, France, January 20.-Today
Germany. or at least S5 per cent of
the German people, are united against
the common enemy"-France. This
is the achievement of the hidden
forces which have been working un-
der Gen. Won Seeckt's impulse in the
last twelve months, and they feel GER
tain that at the first call the nation
will respond.
An army has always to give Sc
rious consideration to its officers. On
account of the restrictions in the
treaty of Versailles it seemed practi-
cally impossible for Germany to bring
up body of officers to lead the mill
lions of German men. 1t would be
easy to get almost any number of
young men to join up, but it was
essential that an undesirable type OF
view) should not be allowed to be
come officers and endanger the tradi-
tional spirit of that select BODY. 10
avoid this, the old pre-war regula-
tions of selecting officers have been
put in force again. A young man
who wants to join the army as an
officer has to apply, as in the days OF
the kaiser, - .he commander o!
regiment usually an officer OF tne
old regime). This officer looks inIo
the young mans antecedents. Shouid
any of his relatives be even suspected
of having had any connectioh VIII
socialists or communists, tne coni-
mander tells him there are no Vacah
cies in his unit and then informs
other regimental commanders that d
suspicious character has asked ad-
mittance into the army.
In this way the army is Kept Tree
of any undesirable" element and the
leaders are able to form new groups
of officers in accordance Win the o!u
Prussian tradition. 1t is sufhclent 10
glance over the new German army
list to see that the proportion OF ON
GERS from aristocratic families Is al
most as large as during the days OF
the kaiser.
Avoiding the Treaty.
Although more young men are
taken into the army than the treaty
permits. the number OF active ofncers
is small. In order to fill the gap the
German organizers had to appeal TO
a body that has always provided Ger
many with large number or eA-
cellent fighterS-university Students.
For almost two centuries the ger
man students have had corporatlonS
that have played an lmportah' cme an,e
in moments OF national crisis: some
of the student corporations, IKE the
and the Rhenania, nave
great regulations. Princes OF tne oiu
imperial family and scions or German
have belonged 10 rii;ns .nfrm
and fighting those famous derman
duels, which, stupid as they may seem
tn foreigners, have for the German
the quality Of bringing up young men
to have nerve.
These corporations sunereo Soou
1aai after the war. Formerly well-to-
40 families were no longer able to
send their sons to universities: Much
less could they afford TO pay tHe
pense of belonging to these ciups
Help came from wealthy German Pc
triots. landlords and industrlallsts'
Who since last year have been sup
niying the clubs with sufficient 1unds
to keep up their traditions and enaoIe
a large number OF young men
meager allowances to follow the lee
tureS of the German universities any any
belong to the clubs. When they JOIN
- ;s weI, understood that they VIII
;oin the army and become reserve
officers. - Hence their. nickname oi
SHINES ofncers.
Method OF Training.
Al, these Young men who volun-
teer as reserve officers undergo every
wear a three-month period OF oriil
With an infantry or cavalry unit -.
the end of two years they are given
the rank Of second lieutenant ahu
must do for a numoer o. oa S1sdN
number which has not been nAeo-
ak weeks exercises annually with
their regiments.
The Young men Of what Germans
regard as the lower classes, the 1u-
ture rank and file. are trained IN d
similar manner. IneS ale 49, -
to regiments and summoned Tor pc
riods of six weeks or two months for
intensive training. Then other young
men take their places.
In this way each company Keeps
the standard number. imposed by the
treaty Of Versailles. but has SIX new
drafts a year. The result IS Una.
each company of 12o men mas III
reality 720.
In order to avoid confusion each
regiment has three sections. Take,
for instance. the Koenigsberg dlvi-
sion. It has officially three regl-
1. and 3-but besides
this official organization there are
the 1o1st, 1o2d and 1o3d first reserve
reeiments and the 2O1st, 202d and
203d second reserve regiments. Thus
the Koenigsberg division could be
ran sformed into three complete dlvi-
sions
This system has been applied 10
every German division. Each active
regiment has, according to the
treaty, its full complement of officers.
officers and men.
The first reserve (the illegal onel has
! skeleton formation Of active officers
and q full complement of reserve ofh-
,ers SO has the second reserve. with
The difference that the officers ana
non on-commissioned officers OF the j
active list are fewer. and their
olaces are taken by the pensioned
var officers who volunteer to super
wise the drill Of the men.
Have Intensive Duties.
The first reserve is formed almost
exclusively of the new generation Of
soldiers and the work, according to
an allied officer who witnessed their
as an unlimited guest, is
very intensive. At the end of few
weeks the men. are really efficient at
handling a rifle, hand grenade or a
Lewis gun. They are eager to learn,
and, according to German officers,
hey grumble less now when they are
ioing voluntary work than when .
they were compelled to do it by law.
To the second reserve belong the
older men who saw a good deal of
lighting during the war, and, conse-
Iuently, don't need such intensive
training as the first reserve.