MAN POWER.

Taranaki Daily News, 19 December 1917, Page 7

MAN POWER.

THE BBLWGEBENTS' FORCES. COMBIXG OUT BRITISH EUGIi&ISS. (Lyttelton Times). It is reported from Loudon tlxat measures for increasing tlio British manpower are now under consideration, "in the light of factors which have recently emerged in the wain theatre." The rather cryptic reference to conditions in | Franco simply means that the transfer oi British and French divisions to Italj has weakened the Allied forces in France, and that simultaneously the withdrawal of Russia and Roumania is giving the enemy the opportunity to increase las strength in the west. Man-power is thus [more than, ever important. So long as the Russians played their part in the struggle, even if they only held a hundred enemy divisions, they were assisting very materially towards the attainment of victory. Early this year there were sixty or sixty-flVc German divisions on the Russian • front and twelve on the Roumanian front. Possibly there were two others in Macedonia. More than half the Austrian divisions were also facing Russians and Roumanians, the eastern and south-eastern fronts engaging fifty divisions as against thirty-three facing the Italians. Various statements of the order of battle on the main fronts have been issued during the year, and though they have differed in detail they all agree in showing a steady increase in the number of German divisions in the west and of Austrian divisions on the •.Italian front. Inevitably there has been a good deal of guess-work about recent estimates, fer. the reason that German and Austrian divisions on the Russian' front have been represented in some cases only bv single regiments. The extent to which transfers from east to west have been carried out is, at the moment, quite unknown.

Obviously if there are still some sixty or seventy German divisions in the eastern theatre likely to be available for service elsewhere, the Germans next spring ought to have a very powerful strategic reserve available for an offensive. The accession to the enemy's manpower in France and Italy has to be countered in some way. and Britain will presumably have to raise the recruiting age and comb sut, all eligibles from Homij services. There is another way of looking at the aajne problem of man-power and it is the one from'which the critics commonly extract most comfort. Instead of considering the enemy's strength in divisions, one may calculate his total manpower and attempt, to estimate how lone it is likely to last. The French General Staff set the example in this calculation quite early in the war. and from time to time it has reviewed the position. A few weeks ago Mr. G. IT. Perris, the csrrqsporident of the Daily Chronicle at the French headquarters, sent his journal an elaborate calculation of the subject ef Germany's strength, and without entering into all the details one may quote the salient features of the article. The war began with the mobilisation of all men having »anr> through military training, including the existing active army of 870,000 men and its reserves, making a rotal of 4,">00.000 men. From this point onward the accretions are j shown in the following table, each new class being reckoned at 430,000: MOBILISED. I!>H August .... 4,600,000 From August Ersatz Reserve 800,000 Class 1014 recruits . . 400,000 l!ilfi Lindstrum I. Ban. . . 1,100,000 iMav-July, Class 1910 . . 450,000 Host of Landstunn . , ] 50,ftf!0 ■Sept.-Nov., Class 1916 . . 450,000 Oct.-Dec. "Recuperated? .100,000 1310 ''Recuperated" . . 200.000 1-andslurm 11. Ban., non-

trained .... 4f>o,oflr> Mar.-Nov., Class 1917 . , 4.i0,000 "Recuperated" . . . HOO.OOO From Nov., Class 1918 . , 450 000 1917—'"Recuperated" . . 150,000 Up to August, of 1919 Class, about l. . 300,000

10,500,000 The "recuperated" levies are the result of the re-examination of exempted recruits. The most important fact sliown in the table is the accentuated anticipation of the normal dates for calling out new classes, in other words, ,the constant lowering of the ages of (recruits. The first class (1914) consisted of young men from 19 years 8 months to 20 years 8 months of age. In the last class yet cailed, the recruits range fromTTJ to 16$ years of age only. According to the official figures there were 14,000,000 mobilisable men in Germany at the outbreak of war, counting the recruits that would be available up to the-end af August, 1914. Of these 10i ■millions are shown as mobilised. There is then a" mixed block chiefly consisting of those whose exemption is continued either on medical grounds or because they are essential to the working of the war industries, the central and local adnmustrations, "or other occupations necessary to the life of the nation:— Definitely exempted . 2,100,000 Left in War Industries . 500,000 Abroad , 200,000 2,800,000 Finally there is the remaining part of the 1919 class, and tbere will be next year the class of recruits, yet to be mobilised, making together something :less than 700,000 men, or rather 'boys, to fill up the gaps made meanwhile. The position may be summarised thua:— Total mobilisable, 1914-17 14,000,000 Mobilised, 1914-17 10,500,000 Definitely exempted, etc . . "2,800,000 To be mobilised,' 1917-18 , . 700,000 Mr. Perris next investigates what has become of the 10J millions of men mobilised. They are either in some part of the armed service, or they are "definite lueses" dead, prisoners, or severely wounded—the sick and wounded recovered to the armed services up to t)he Bummer of this year having been counted among the mobilised. Hitherto the estimates have been based upon published German figures. In this second inquiry tnere arc no such trustworthy public -ip.' nrnnrently Mr. Perris works ,on a French estimate. He obtiin.s the | lullinviny result,s:

Of 10,500,000 men motTilised, Tie definite losses (dead, gravely wounded, prisoners) amount to about . 4 000,000 There remain as effectives oil the front, on lines of communication, and in the interior .... 5,500,000 And of divisions in formation in the interior and effrctives in depots . . 600,000 the total being made up of wounded al-