COMPARISON OF MAN POWER.

Manawatu Herald, Volume XXXIX, Issue 1696, 10 April 1917, Page 2

COMPARISON OF MAN POWER.

IN a review of the resources of the allies and of the Central Powers, Colonel Peyler, the well-known Swiss military writer, says; —Proportionately to populations and despite the losses suffered, the reserve man-power of Prance is in a position to supply the diminishing line committed to her with greater ease than the reserve man-power of Germany can supply the line which she has to hold. The allies of Prance are reducing her task, while Germany’s task is increased by her allies. At the present time, without reckoning the colonies, any one class of recruits of the. Powers of (he Quadruple Entente comprises twice the number of men in the corresponding class of the Central Empire Alliance. The situation with regard to the effectives of the German army is that on December 31st, the entire 1917 Hass was at the front, either in the tiring- line or in the depots of units immediately behind (lie front. No men of that (dass remained in the depots in the interior. In order to increase the number of her soldiers Germany is obliged to resort to all manner of expedients, compelling the Poles to form regiments, deporting the Belgians so as to release men from the land and the workshops, and proclaiming a levy en masse in order to utilise for war purposes everything It is humanly possible lo utilise. Whatever losses the allies may have endured, things are not so black with them, thanks always to the more advantageous proportion of their fronts. Thus for one German on the German front, one AustroHungarian on the Austrian front, and one Bulgarian at the front with his army, the allies will not require mote than half a Frenchman on rhe French front, two-thirds of an Englishman on the English front, and half an Italian and a third of a Russian on the Italian and Russian fronts. These proportions arc not advanced as exact’ the remaining fractions constitute reserves: