Attention has been attracted by an article bearing the signet two German military experts, von Freiberg-Alimendiger and von Stephani, in the "Menschheit," a weekly publication, on the organization of the German army. They put forward a scheme which they do not hesitate to describe as in accordance with the" views of the Commander-in-Chief, General von Heye, and the War Minister, Herr Gessler. It tends towards a complete transformation of the prom fessional army' imposed on by. the Treaty of Versailles main' idea is to create reserves, against which the Allied experts were careful to provide, The system lof twelve years' service imposed by the Treaty of Versailles produces a though small army, but it has:
ous drawbacks from the German point. of view. The training of a soldier requires only two or three years, and when, a in Germany's tease, the total strength is limited, the annual infusion of new blood becomes very small and the increase in the number of men who could be relied upon in an emergency takes place far too slowly.
Various devices, such as temporary enlistments, have been tried, to get vound the obstacle presented by the treaty, but the practical results are too small, and the preliminary train= ing of young men, carried out by Patriotic associations, is only a poor substitute for actual" service with the colours, A militia would provide masses of half-disciplined men. who would be worse then useless, the German experts being firmly con= inoed that it is impossible to make 'a raw youth into an efficient soldier-in the space of twelve months, What. they want is to retain the principle of a professional army, but to limit the period of service in the Reichs-wear to three or four years. In this: way, the number of new men brought. in every year would come to about 40,000, intend of only 10,000, as at. present, and in ten years there would be an adequate supply of reservists The German experts hope that this modification will be endorsed by the League of Nations. France would, of course, object, but all she could do would be to prolong the occupation of the Rhineland, and even. that would be risky if she found herself in avminority at Gene Other officers of the Reichswehr have recently discussed the pot= ibility of a war with Poland at distant date and the practicabili of establishing colonies of train soldiers near the eastern frontier, thus reviving a scheme which d back to the days of Frederick the Great. "The French, who have just reduced their own period of compulsory yervico in the army to one yen, interpret these views and projects as signs that defeat has not changed Germany's mentality.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.