GERMANY’S PREPAREDNESS.

Globe, Volume XXII, Issue 2104, 20 November 1880, Page 3

GERMANY’S PREPAREDNESS.

That the Eastern question is being reopened is only a half truth, and to many people it may be a misleading one. No German paper would now repeat Bismarck’s famous remark of three years ago; that the Eastern question was not worth a broken bone of a single Pomeranian. His recent action indicates that in certain eventualities he would break a good many Pomeranian bones in the vicinity of the Bosphorus. He has come to the front of the stage, where formerly he grinned and chuckled to himself in the background. In common with many other interested students of his movements, 1 have of late frequently asked men of special information why he should have faced round with such apparent abruptness. They have been pretty well agreed as to the answer. He considers that the formidable Slav question is now almost ripe. To him, as to all far-seeing statesmen, it is the kernel of the Eastern question. It is the Slav who threatens the Turk, who menaces Austria, which is only another Turkey, but a Christian instead of a Mahomedan ono. This same Slav is becoming also a danger to Germany through a possible combination with Franco. Hitherto Bismarck has strategically poohpoohed and deprecated the Slav because ho did not feel prepared to grapple with him. He was very friendly with Austria, you remember, so long as he doubted Prussia’s strength to thrust her out of the German Confederation. He was the best of friends with the late Emperor of the French until Von Moltke whispered to him that he would be responsible for holding the Elaine. Again and again the German army has been reorganised for a fresh undertaking, and Gorman diplomacy has amused the intended victim until the moment arrived to strike

home. After the Danish campaign it was reorganised for an inevitable campaign against Austria. After 1866 it was reorganised and adapted for a life and death conflict with France. Since 1870 it has been a third time reorganised. I will not say positively against whom, but from the magnitude of the preparations which have been made, and are still making, it can be no mean enemy. The improvements which the German army has undergone in the past few years are simply fabulous. They will be the principal factor in determining the character of Europe five or even two years hence. Germany can strike as no other military power can or ever would in the history

of the world. The Empire is a vast camp—the people are literally an army. The large towns are packed with garrisons, and the woods around them echo daily the tramp of the cavalry and the crack of the rifle in the autumn manoeuvres, which are now in full swing. The railways are a network of military roads, and every carriage and wagon is registered ,in the omnivorous ledgers of the Intelligence Department at Berlin. At the small stations, and even as far north as Antwerp and Rotterdam, I have seen covered waggons, of the newest construction, with these two cabalistic lines painted in the upper corner —“ 50 Mann, 6 Pferde ’’—signifying that the Quartermaster-General has approved of them for the conveyance, in case of need, of 50 men or 6 horses. The capacity of the passenger-carriages is of course well-known. In the archives of the ICriegs JUiniterum the carriages, waggons, and other roll-ing-stock on every line of railway in the Empire are carefully recorded. Not only so, but it has been calculated how many could be collected at given points within a certain period, and how many men and horses, or what quantity of war material could be brought together at the same points. A large proportion of this rolling stock is actually State property, and Prince Bismarck will not rest until he has acquired the whole of the lines included. His Bill for buying out the few private companies which remain has been strenuously opposed by the Liberals, but he continues his negotiations with the companies, and one of them was absorbed not many months ago. In time of war the company’s rolling-stock would be as completely at the disposal of the army os that of the State lines. The greater part of their officials would bo turned at once into a railway brigade, for in that capacity they belong to the army reserve. The regular train service would be suspended, and passengers be allowed to travel only ex gratia when a few seats could be spared for them, or two or three third-class carriages could be made up into a train, and smuggled through from siding to siding when the line was clear of troops. This was a familiar experience in the Franco-German campaign, but though the system then seemed perfect to the unprofessional observer it has not been stationary since. Tho railway and telegraph services have been steadily developed from year to year. Every improvement in the daily working of the lines has been applied to them. Every now instrument or patent which offers

itself in any market, European or American, is eagerly adopted. In the training of railway and telegraph officials military service is even more carefully kept in view than their proper business.

Exceptional opportunities which I have enjoyed in the present journey eastward have inspired me with increased respect for the technical training of the German railway functionaries. No person is entrusted with the charge of a station, however insignificant, who is not an efficient telegraphist, and familiar at least with the elements of railway mechanics. Each station is furnished with a couple of first-class Morse instruments—instruments such as one never meets with even in England. The assistant stationmaster, who often combines with that dignity the practical duties of porter and lampcleaner, must be competent to take charge when his chief is absent. They do early and late duty by turns, and when the assistant is in charge he is solely responsible. The signalling arrangements are much simpler and less expensive than on English lines. On some, even trunk lines, the traffic is so successfully adjusted to the convenience of the officials rather than of the public that they require no special working table. A Wirth or a Hentschell is furnished to them by the head office, with an official stamp on the corner, and they need no more. A German railway manager would never be heard boasting of the rapidity with which he forwarded goods or of tho punctuality of his passenger trains ; but he glories in the number of troops he could send over his line in twenty-four hours after the order had been given for mobilisation. He accepts the doctrine that railways exist primarily for moving armies, and then for serving the public. I have heard one dilate with glee on the ease and regularity with which the staff of a line could be transplanted to another line, and proceed with their work as if they had never been disturbed. They have been taught before all to make themselves at home in an enemy’s country. Stationmasters, porters, guards and drivers are all under the spell of military discipline, which at a word would transform them into soldiers. In the ranks of the army there is also a large amount of railway and telegraphic experience. It is a special branch of training with the cavalry, who, when reconnoitring, always carry tools for operating on railways or telegraphs. The only country in Europe which has had the foresight to protect itself from this dangerous versatility of the Uhlans is Russia. Her frontier railways were purposely built on a broader' gauge than the German, in order to prevent the Germans using their rolling stock on them. It was an ingenious device, but the Uhlan has to a large extent circumvented it. Steady practice and the best of tools have made him so export in plate-laying, that he could shift rails at the rate of many miles a day. Instead of gaining, Russia has so far been a serious loser by her wide gauge. In the too probable event of another great war it is a grave consideration for Europe that Germany should not only have the best army, but that it should be the only State which has really and completely solved the twin difficulties of military transport and intelligence. Its generals would have at their command every railway and telegraph line in the Empire. They would have their pick of the railway and telegraph staffs. In a strange country they would carry with them the most expert topographers, engineers, telegraphists, and transport agents. The whole army is pervaded by a complacent consciousness of this fact, and it has a great moral effect on the men. In physique and morals the latter are immeasurably better than their predecessors of even ten years ago. They are comfortably and even handsomely clothed. They are decently fed. Their barracks have for the most part been|rebuilt or enlarged’eince the Franco-German war, and compared to what they used to be they are luxurious. The commissariat is perfectly independent of con. tractors and horse dealers. It has magazines for every kind of supplies in use, and nothing is admitted to them but of the finest quality. It has its own horses and forage carts, and whenever it is a buyer it can make its own terms, for it has a purse which no Reichstag or House of Commons can touch the strings of. The German army, in short, is an imperium in impcrio within the German Empire. It is larger, stronger, better trained, and more efficient than ever before. These are essential parts in the new phase of the Eastern question, and in the new policy of Prince Bismarck.—" Adelaide Register’s ” Correspondence.