GERMANY'S LACK OF MEN.

Pukekohe & Waiuku Times, Volume 5, Issue 217, 13 October 1916, Page 2 (Supplement)

GERMANY'S LACK OF MEN.

1917 CLASS ALREADY AMONG THE PRISONERS. Germany's resources in men are declining rapidly. The new formations put on a war footing in 1914 and 1915 in the hope of striking decisive blows hav.e been absorbed by the boundless extension of the actual fronts, and are now contributing their shane to th > wastage of men. Of particular note are tho losses of South Germans, on whom Prussia is drawing to a serious extent. German effectives, up to March, 1915, were kept up by the utilisation of tho volunteers of the classes of 1914, 1915, and 1916, and by the incorporation of men of the Ersatz (Second Reserve). In July and August, 1915, Germany, Germany had exhausted the resources which could bo commanded from the normal incorporation of the classes up to twenty years of age. The men of the (--lass 1916 began to appeal after the first attacks on Verdun. At the outset they represented only about 20 per cent, of tue reinforcements; now they represens 50 per cent. In May of this year, as a consequence of the premature .exhaustion of tho class of 1916, men of the class or 1917 were poured into the depots at the frony In certain Army Corps the class of 1917 has already entered the firing line, and some have been taken prisoner by the Allies. More particularly in Southern Germany and in the reg'on of Dresden the depots have l«?en emptied to make loom for tho ('lass of 1918, the first incorporations of which have been notified. In France the class of 1917 is still in the interior, and there is no thought of cal.ing upon the class of 191?.