The war correspondent of the St. Petersburg Journal, the "Russian Messenger," Who was present at the recent French manwuvres and reviews at Rheims and Betheni, furnished his journal with a full report of what ho saw and beard in the French army. Owing to the herds existing between our own and that of the French army, says the journal, it will be of interest to quote some of the correspon-Gent's statements in the matter:—"The reviews at Rheims and Betheni have shown that the time has not passed in vain an~ that the French army was converted into a big steel machine, the strokes' of which would prove disastrous to an enemy." As the decisive factors of a combat have always been and will continue to be moral on's, what is then the moral aspect of a French soldier? What is be worth in the world's market of common flesh? "The French soldier is not a soldier for exhibition; he has nothing military in his blood. Ju most cases itis a simple-minded peasant, deprived of his plough, an. wito is continually homesick and longing for his native plains and meadows; or it is Parisian, who is made extremely uncomfortable by the requirements of disciplizie and is much burdened by them. Upon entering the regiment, a French soldier usually laughs at al! the military acts he is made to perform, and owing to which it is quite difficult to govern bim. But la order to attain this, an iron discipline is therefore of absolute necessity, which, however, has been. enforced. It must be remarked that it is not an eshibitionary discipline that causes a soldier to stop Dreathing in the presence of his superior or an absurd and meaningless puttin~ forward of his chest, but it is a discipline that knows no. mercy and means prison or banishment."
The relations between officer and soldier, the author characterises as follows "The officers inardiv know their soldiers; as a rule, they will never do anything superfluous for them. Under suck circumstances, were not the French soldier (> a certain extent in 2 stage of moral development, and had he not understood the significance of militarism for his country, the French army would appear a dead organisation. By interesting himself in politics, reading x papers, and paying attention to political gossip. he gets to conceive well that the tranquillity and prosperity of his country, his own, rest mostly with the army, on whom the country depends; having' thus come to such conds sion. he therefore performs all his duties and the requirements of tie se: tually and accurately. ay own interests were involve riotism of a French soldier demands warming up from time to time and occasional impulses from the outside. otherwise no such results would be had and the soldier would remain entirely too tranquil and indifferent."
Further, the correspondent says rule touch any incorrectness Will apply to the regimental court, where no merey is to be expected. Such a circumstance, it would seem. should produce 2 vast amount difference between officer and soldier, and resuit in hatred, ete., but in reality there is, however, no such thing. The French soldier likes his officer, for the reason that be well understands that the officer has no other option. A French soldier prefers a court-martial and severe punishment to an insult from an officer."
"As regards "laying on. of hands" (striking a soldier) in the French army, the correspondent relates the following incident "A certain French officer becoming enraged at a soldier, struck the latter. The soldier a at first deter but his comrades day returning from a trip to the town to his barracks. while shaking bands with his comrades, one of them refused to extend him his hand. " Why?" asked the offended soldier." Becatise you are a "beaten one'" was the quick reply. The soldier did not say anything in reply, but on the following day, during the usual exercises, ho all at once stepped forward from the ranks and delivered a blow on the face of the officer who had offended him a few days previously.
Summing up all of the above, it must be said that the mod-em French soldier does not represent the wholly-complete type of a soldier such as two Eastern European armies possess; namely the Russian and the Turkish, At the same time the French soldier is also far from a " diametrically opposite" type of an ideal soldier. The latter type, however, has always been rare and demonstrated itself mostly in the armis of the great revolution. In common with the soldiers of all the other Western European armies. the modern French sol-dir is not a peacock nor a crow.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.