FRENCH ARMAMENTS AND GERMAN APPREHENSIONS.

New Zealand Times, Volume XXX, Issue 4494, 14 August 1875, Page 1 (Supplement)

FRENCH ARMAMENTS AND GERMAN APPREHENSIONS.

(From the KolnischeZeitung, Cologne, April 30.) The Emperor of Russia is to arrive at Berlin on the 10th of May, and we understand that he is to be accompanied by Prince Gortschakow. It is said by the Berlin correspondents of some foreign papers that advantage is to be taken of the presence of the Emperor Alexander to confirm the peaceful alliance between the three northern powers. Any confirmation of the hopes of peace cannot but be welcome in the present unsettled state of public opinion. So long as the alliance between the three emperors remains in force, one would think that peace is secured as it were by a great anchor. Eor, whatever preparation France may make, she can hardly be in a position to strike a blow, without any allies at all to aid her. Herr von Stauffenberg, the President of the Bavarian House of Deputies, justly remarked in his recent great speech, that apprehensions of war are excited not so much by this or that newspaper article as by the way in which the army is being organised in France. The MilitarWochenhlatt published in its last few numbers a series of articles on the French Cadres law. These articles called forth many replies in the French military press, and the attempt was made to divest of its threatening character the new division of the infantry regiments into four field battalions. The Militar- Wochenhlatt, however, persists in its view, and writes as follows ; —“ The French papers point out quite briefly that their infantry regiments have hitherto contained three field battalions of six companies each, and a depot of three companies, in all twenty - one companies ; but that henceforth they are to be divided into four battalions of four companies each, and a depot of. two companies, in all eighteen companies, so that the change does not produce an increase but a decrease of cadres. That is true. But as the twenty-one old companies were intended, according to all official and semi-official reports, to supply cadres for three battalions of 1000 men each, while the eighteen new companies will, or at all events may, serve as a framework for the formation of four battalions of 1000 men each, the war strength of the French infantry, which consists of 141 regiments, -null henceforth be increased by 144,000 men.” This much is certain, that our most prominent military men regard the French armaments very seriously. But although these armaments may endanger the continuance of peace, France can hardly be in a position to make war single-handed, while if she makes exaggerated preparations without being able to strike a blow, she is only exhausting her own strength. Therefore, it is certainly of the utmost importance to know whether France has any prospect of finding allies. She has been obliged to give up almost all hope of finding an ally in Russia, but on the other hand she seems never to have given up the hope that the Austrian alliance, which was nipped in the bud in 1870, may be gained in the event of a future war opening more successfully than the last. Fortunately such a thing is not to be thought of, so long as Count Andrassy remains the leading Minister of Austria. But for this very reason it is assuredly often a subject of anxious reflections for the German Chancellor whether, in the many vicissitudes in the state of Austria, the revenge party—we use the expression for the sake of brevity—may not one day or another come into power at Vienna. That such reflections are not foreign to him was clear from therecent significantarticlein the NorddmtschcAllgemeinc Zcitang, which, to minds trained in politics, appeared far more important than the much-talked-of article in the Pest, which it partially contradicted. These alarming articles have had the beneficial effect of producing a regular flood of peaceful assurances from the French Government and the French press, which assurances are probably seriously meant, at least for the present. The great mass of the French people were anything but eager for war in 1870, and they cannot have become more eager for it, at least in the western provinces, which experienced the sufferings of the late war. To prevent politicians and military men, who are thirsting for revenge, from gaining the upper hand, will be the task of German and European policy for many a year to come. The task is not an easy one, but it must not be despaired of. That in Germany the maintenance of peace is universally desired is a fact that need not be asseverated, for what have We to gain by war ?