GERMANY'S MAN-POWER.

Pukekohe & Waiuku Times, Volume 5, Issue 235, 15 December 1916, Page 3 (Supplement)

GERMANY'S MAN-POWER.

Although the recvent utterances of ifiSh Gorman Chancellor and o. officially inspired newspapers suggest that Germany has probably not lost hope of s&curing an inconclusive peace, she evidently realises that there are still many months cf fighing ahead of her It. any case she is makitng no great sen tof her efforts to make the best of her available man-power. It Is clear, as one writer puts it, that she has long since adopted abnormal method? cf recruting, and the recent reports regarding the re-examination of the unfit in Austria reveal the unenviable position in which this ally stands. The announcement, which recently came to us through Switerland, that all tit Germans between 17 and 60 years of age will bo required, shows that the enemy is determined to fill the gaps and meet fresh demands by utilising very doubtful material. Germany intnded, when she set out on her war of conquest, that she should be through with, the business long before now; in fact, it is more than likely that she deemed, her ends would be gained before she had exhausted that section of her younger citizens included in the classes 1914 and 1915—men of 20 and 21 years of age. Her decision to utilise youths of 17 years shows how far her plans have miscarried. These younger men. represent the normal source of recruitment for a conscript nation. Every year some 400,000 young men in Germany attained the ag e of 21 years, and these 100,000 represented the normal annual flow of recruits. If Germany had been able to conduct her operations with an annual wastage of only 400,000 men, she would have been in a position to meet the demands made upon her without resorting to abnormal methods. But tho wastage which she has had to meet has probably been more than sis times as great as the number of her normal recruits. The youngest class called up at the beginning of tho war in Germany was class 1914—men of over 20 and approaching 21 years of age. Class 1915 should have been calkd up in the following year, and class 1916 during the present year, and class 1917 during next year. What actually happened with these younger men, however, was that classes 1915, 1916 and 1917 were all calkd up during the year 1915. Germany, therefore, in order to meet her losses, drew on her future resources. The young men of these various classes do not proceed direct to the front when called up, but are drafted into depots and training schools, and may not appear in the front trenches for some considerable time afterwards. Mr. Ashmead Bart lett, in an article published in the London "Daily Telegraph" recently, regarding Germany's losses in the Somme offensive, refers to the manner in which Germany was forced to rush thes» younger men into the firing line before she intended to "Of the 1916 class,'' he said, "it is certain that all have besiiincorporated in the ranks except the weaklings, who have been put back. By Julq loth, of fifteen divisions on the Verdun front the average was 25 per cent, of the men of the 1916 ciass. In ten other divisions the figures had reached 50 per cent, on the same date. On the Somme front, by August loth the average of the 1916 class was 22 per cent, amongst 32 regiments. Thus it can only be concluded that practically tho whole of the 1916 class ha« been utilised. The calling up of ihe 1917 clasr. commenced in December,. 1915, and was extended over several months, according to the Geiman custom. Actually at the present time at least 25 per cent, of this class have been incorporated into the fighting units and are already at the front, while the remaining 75 per cent, aro in various stages of training behind the lines. In comparison with this, not a single man of the 1916 French class has been sent to the front until he has had a year's training; whilst not a single man of the 1917 class has yet been called upon to fight. It is also certain that if the Germans had real'scd the necessity of calling upon thi 1917 class in July 1916. they would have called up the 1913 class soontr than they did. The calling up of the 1918 class commenced in June and July 1916, and is being spread over a period of time. ... In conclusion, it is evident that the calling up of the 1918 class six months earlier than was the 1917 class, the incorporation of the latter in fighting units after from three to six months' training, and the close revision of the older excluded classes, proves conclusively that the loss of men (luring the last four months lias been much greater than the Germans ever anticipated."