EXIT THE CONSCRIPT

Dominion, Volume 12, Issue 205, 24 May 1919, Page 7

EXIT THE CONSCRIPT

PEACE CONGRESS DEALS WITH STANDING MENACE CUTTING DOWN THE GERMAN : ARMY (By Mr. !?•. Riley, offioial journalist with tho riovyZealand Peaco Delegation.) . ' Paris, March 20. the original proposal of tho Supremo Army Council of tho Allied and Associated Powers as'regards, the''limitation of tho" German Army was that the number of effectives in all German States 6jiould be fixed at nien (excluding officers)-to 'be raised by 'annual recruit-' went. ..Thi) grouping'i4' that army was to be limited.to 15 infantry divisions and five cavalry! divisions,. .with ...not more .than fiyo-arniy, corps.,staff, and, one army staff. The poriod -of. service, .was for iuen .to bo..t\velve months, aftei' which they wero. to- be under, no further military obligations whatever./ - The number of officers-was .to be. limited to 9000.

When these and other-proposals came before tho Council of, the Powers it was announced tfyit: the' British delegates could not see - their way -to accept such .terms without substantial. modifications. The manner in the original pro-posals-respecting the futuro strength of the German Army, and the-system of en-listment-were''reduced and altered represents, a triumph for the British statesmen in the Council of the' Peace Conference.. The number of German effectives was reduced by 50 per cent, and it was decided to demand thn abolition of uni-versal-compulsory military "service in ■Germany.,

It - may be' stated that -at ; a-meeting of the Council at which' the Allies' mili : tary.'experts-'ivcro : present , it .was; [explained'''that' the proposed German Arhjy of 200,000 men could.be raised by annual recruitment, which 'could, be either volun-. tary .or.-hy drawing jots' or' iiy-any other .system. 'The men so raised could only serve for one year and no. longer. This method was challenged oil tho ground that under snoh a system of recruitment with service restricted to one.year, two million men- would have been, trained in 'ten years. '' :;

It. was admitted that an annual renewal of * personnel would produce soldiers ot a sort,-but as against that there would bo no corresponding staffs.. In other words, the quality of iin"army, depended on .the cadres.'. It was the'old principle. :oter again that it .would be better to havo an aTmy of. .'sheep commanded by a lion than an army Qf lions commanded by .an ass.

The principle was not acceptablo to shrewd statesmen on this' Council, whose main' argument was that Germany possessed great, nuinbers of highly-trained officers and non-commissioned officers' who for' the nest' .twenty/ yearswould be ready to'come forward,. thirsting, for revenge. It was' possible that jrithin'' a 6core of years (fe'riiiany could have an army of' four tifillion . trained. ,mon led not by donkeys, bot by officers with considerable war experience. A : more dependable system of German disarmament was required. -It tfAs made clear that th'e British point of new was that Ger, many should not be permitted to maintain a bigger, army than Great Britain ■possessed. . :This view-prevailed'in the end. and the original proposals were.revised. and proviFion made„(as long since announced) for the limitation of the Ger-. man military forces to 100,000 men,'.including officers, and-, establishment of depots (the number of officors not to exceed . .1000) grouped in not more • than seven divisions of infantry and three divisions of cavalry, with only two urniy. corps headquarters staffs, and provision also made for the abolition of cqnscrip-.. tion_ from all German 'Stale's?' and the abolition of the great German .General. Staff and air similar organisations, and the entire suppression of all secret and camouflaged methods ,of raising and training soldiers. " .

It is a pity that full publicity cannot be , given to all the arguments'that led to the 'final adoption : of- the. military Terms to be imposed on' Germany, for ■ftn great'PeAce -has. ,'So far, offered nothing:, more.-, interesting' to » a world fiurfeited with war.' : ,