ARMED FORCES OF THE BRITISH EMPIRE.

Waikato Times, Volume XXVI, Issue 2145, 8 April 1886, Page 4

ARMED FORCES OF THE BRITISH EM PI RE.

Thi 'faVeft returns of the British Army •how that tf>ere ar« about .250.00 Q men available Mr service, of whom 20&.000 are with, the colours, nearly 40,000 in the . firstcfibf Jrmy'reiefve, and nearfy 7,000 ji^ J second-class. Of militia, including •*• militia reserve, there are* about 114,000, and of yeomanry cavalry about 11|500.' Then the men of the royal navy including' thoio on Coastguard service and tb» royal marine artillery and infantry, number tome 60,C30 officers and men. , The volunteers at home reckon up 220,000. The Indian native forces, allowing for the additions which have been made lately, must approach 160,000, and the Canadian active militia account for over ' 45,000 of all ranks. Thus that -portion of tho military , strength of the /empire which may be considered always more or. less in training, and certainly always in'] possession of arms, uniforms, and-accoutre-ments, is "approximately" 850,006, a very near approach to the million pi armed men Lord Wolseley recently 'rotighly estimated M at the orders of the Queen or her representatives. But beyond these more immediate resources there are several regiment* of mU/tia organised in the' Channel Islands and volunteer corps in the colonies of the West Indies, the Cape, Ceylon, Hongkong, Malta, Natal, New South Wales (including a corps of reeular arMHery), New Zealand, St. Helena,; Singapore, South Australia (including what is called permanent artillery), Tasmania, Victoria, Western Australia and India. The greater colonies,- too, have large unascertained , stores oi , r the Landsturm character, as, for instance, New ZealattdHand Canada, whose reserve; militia, including men up to sixty years of age, is freely .compute^ at 660,000. Taking m tmaefinrfd levies of this kind," th 6 < resowc|s of (EVJEm'piri become larger than is often supposed, though it is to be assumed that the organisation of the men ."represented by •rfch large numbers exists mainly on 'paper onljri and the arms and equipment .are entirely wanting. Taking the home forces only, tnfcre were at the date of the recent rattans' 96,000 regular troops, and these, added to the army reserve, militia, yeonyrary, »hd volunteers, j^ve a total militMX foroe. in, the United Kingdom of about 440,000 men.