THE GERMAN ARMY.

Wairarapa Age, Volume XXXII, Issue 10515, 3 January 1912, Page 4

THE GERMAN ARMY.

There is a growing feeding in Englamcl and other parts of the British Empire that Germany possesses the finest';army in the world. To di&o6unrt this feeling, and' give a proper sense of proportion „to the - fear, Mr Hilaire Belloc, who served in the .French army and is* notw a member of the British Parliament, is writing a series of articles for the "London Magazine." The series is entitled, "The German Army, its Strength, and its Weakness," and l in hfe introduction he says there are at present seven great \malitairy Powers— Russia, the German Empire, Aub-tria-Hwaigary, Italy, France, Turkey and Japan. It seems odd, in view of,the war' in tlie East, that Mr Belloc should credit Turkey with being one of the seven; ;but he may be said to explain tliis by stating that each of these nations. get& its- army by some form of compulsory recruitment. The writer adds that it i® only in England that the legend otf Germany's military greatness has grown up. "Yon, do not find Russians or Italians taking in t/hese terms of the German army, still less Frenchmen ; and the nearer you get to military expert opinion, the less that point of view is held." And the; reading of the Belloc articles wiill certainly cause Englishmen to modify their fear of Germany's skill and preparedness.