THE GERMAN MILITARY LAWS.

Waikato Times, Volume VI, Issue 331, 27 June 1874, Page 2

THE GERMAN MILITARY LAWS.

The definite military law presented to the Geirman Reichstag, and the explanations ; given by such ft competent authority as Count Mbltke on the necessity of .having a fixed permanent peace establishment, with all its inevitable consequences, are (says the correspondent of the Times) well adapted to raise the apprehension whether, by following all these improvements of the model, we shall not end by making all Parliamentary control over the military expenditure quite nugatory. If the permanent peace establishment is fixed at 401, 659 men in, Germany, which must always be under.arms^ and if the military administration has, the right to whatever it deems necessary, according to the price of labor and of the necessaries' of life, for their maintenance^ thereis an end to even the shadow of Parliamentary control, and all those who have adopted thV'l*rftesian,_ military organization ax*e warned to look out before they go a step further in the imitation of the model. In Austria this voice of warning is So much, tile less lively to find a deaf ear as the more time wears on, and the more the new military organisation duced- in 1868 approaches completion, the ,m<tae the ' impression is gaining ground thaty even •if <W be a successtin most other respects, it t has been devised on a larger scale than the resourc.es, of the admit, and that, if not before, at any rate at the end of the ten years' period for Which it has been devised, it will need great revision. Iri'spite'jjbf the .condemnation pronounced by so weighty |tn authority as Count Moltke-on the militia; 'system, as likely to make wars so much longer and therefore more costly in men and' money, title chief question with us will first be the finding of a proportion between the regular aiany and the militia correspbnding better to the finances of : Austria; At present this proportion is as 8 tio 5 oi* 6— -that is, 1 when the ten years are completed there will" be areJgular army of 800,000, and from 500,000 to 600,000 militiamen, and the idea is more and' more, gaining ground that this proportion might be, without detriment be reversed. ijere the militia is' not' altogether an accessory to the regular army— a 'jsort of reserve'force of " emerited" soldiers, -with little or no special organization jn times of peace, ■ The militia iay . indeed^ an- ajpifliary force, but npt one regularly organized in., time /of peace on ttfd model of the regular army so as to .be ready to tAke the « field in time of war at the first call. Now ,^here is \ no three years' service, only eight' the first year and three weeks ,in every, successive 'yjtlar, but just on this «cpount a,<rgrea^r,»U3^^:!of the thoroughly trained- soldiers wbttld;beVelEs''/ad disable. That which the militia now. i-ifcceiveS issjcarcely worth having, for only' after having' belonged for seven years to the reserves does the soldier pass for two' years into the militia. At the- end of that , period the soldier is thoroughly sick of soldiering ' and of the uncertainty which keeps him from settling down in life, andliecomes, disgusted and weary, to the MUitia, corrupting,, rather than improving thespirit of the force, the bulk o't which J is composed or all those who have not been draughted into theregular army. If the militia would thus gain not a. little if the service in the regular army 'ftrere reduced to seven years in all — that is, threti in active army and four, in- the, reserves, instead of^ three in the army and seven in the reserves — th^Q military 1 force of the- Empire wftuld v not ojjtly not, lose, but rather gain by the change, for thai reserve t _ men of the last three years would do far better ser-, vice in the' militia jth,an they, are likely to djb in the- } regular army. These men of the reserve may, indeed, be called ou^for ! practice dvtivy yearj but, of course, economical reasons forbid this altogether* v and as a rule the men" who have served their three. years under aims are never .called out 'for theseven years during which they belong to the ojreserve.0 jreserve. It is all very well in Germany, where a certain degree of cultivation is diffused all over the country, but«here, where cultivation ,is many ! part } of the™ Empire at a very lew ebb, the" 1 soldier broug it back to his hpme sqpn becomes a peasant again, £>s those) are round him, so that .after a few yearsJ you can scarcely distinguish huUiftom his' 'comtrypien. " If, ' on the contrary, he .passed* to the.^Militia Wore the, process oftransformation has become cjompljjte, and' were called out'eve,n for a tfew^ weeks every year, he . woul4 have an opportunity df refreshing'his memory, and ieepingyjU|) f cprtpin $abis3, bf order: .ajnd discipline whH6h f now h§ is apt.to lose. '- J