Evening star., 1933-09-10

II ever a fighting force ,Uas hand picked,
it is the ReichsiUehr of Cermany-an
army Of 100000 healthy, athletic young
men.
lege soldiers pay. He may wear civilian
clothes II he wants to of duty.
After q certain length Of time in the army
he IS given unlimited leave at night-the idea
being that good soldier he will be sensible
about his freedom. Finally, as . good citizen,
he Is allowed the rare pleasure Of paying his
taxes: in fact he has to pay them.
IT Is almost superfuous to say that the Ger
man soldier-new styles an athlete. It
couldn't very well be otherwise. When you
have an army in which every recruit IS q
healthy, well built chap with dozen years in
which to learn the ultimate perfection of the
goose step, you get the time, the inclination
and the right material for sports and gym
nastics. Soccer foot ball is perhaps the favor
1te pastime and medicine ball unknown to the
old army. is part of the daily calisthenics.
The German soldier of the Reichswehr looks
what he is-an intelligent fighting man and
q good athlete. He is clean shaven narrow
hipped and smart in appearance.
A wise management-one cannot say general
staff. because, according to the treaty Of Yer
sailles. there is none-has developed a fairly
intense program Of study for the army. That
part OF this program deals with tactics and
good portion IS vocational rather than military.
During his last six years in service the
German soldier prepares for civilian life by
learning trade, or, If he prefers he i
schooled to become a government official. In
any case. the training is one of Prussian
thoroughness with plenty Of home work, and
it leaves him well fitted for the change
After he leaves the army, the Reichswehr-
soldat is pretty sure of a government job. If
he wants to strike out for himself, he gets .
substantial cash bonus. No matter what he
does. the Reichswehr keeps In touch with him.
He is valuable man and may be wanted again
in hurry.
Thus the Reichswehr. It picks its men as
no army in the world, and gives them a dozen
years of intense soldering, daily athletics and
vocational training. Small wonder that there
IS a scramble for every vacancy in its ranks
and that the applicants are well educated and
personable youngsters. In country where
civil life promises little nothing to its youth,
the Reichswehr is veritable magnet of Sc
curity.
THE Reichswehr goes to maneuvers with silly
imitation tanks made Of canvas and bicycle
wheels-and hates it! Its machine gunners
use toy balloons for aerial targets because
there are no airplanes to drag huge canvas
squares across the sky. Nor are there any
anti-aircraft guns to take pot shots at them.
The treaty-the diktat-forbids them And
the Germans, who feel deeply about these
things, wonder how long this Will last
The French, whose standing army IS close
to a half million. have a keen, though not af-
fectionate, interest in this curious product Of
the brains Of Messrs. Wilson, Lloyd George and
Clemenceau. Only 100000, to be sure. and
deprived of so many things-yes.
But isn't there aminouS talk of secret re-
seryes and are there not sources in other
countries from which Germany might get
heavy artillery and tanks almost overnight?
And was there ever country quite so solic-
itouS about tS-ahen-commercial aviation q
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