The expansion of the German army, recently announced in open defiance of the Treaty of Versailles, is to begin to-day, It is now thought that the! armed forces of the country will number 750,000 officers and men.
new defence law will announce ithe creation of a council, of which General Ludendroff and von Seeckt, of war-time tame, ill be the most influential members.
To.day, the class of 1915, number-{ing 580,000 men, will be called up and, of this number, 300,000 will be kept with the colours.
The classes of 1901 to 1909 are to bbe trained in short-service periods] not exeetding eight weeks, in the course of the next few years.
"The 1901 class will be called up ct.'I, and another batch on Apr. 1, 1936.
In order to enable Germany to} carry on meanwhile, a special law hasbeen promulgated authorizing, Inter ails, the Minister of Finance to assume certain guarantees. For example, for the promotion of Ger. many's export trade, up to 200,000,000 marks will be made available. Up to 100,000,000 marks will be allowed f6r work-creating purposes and up to 88,000,000, marks for agriculture Reuter.
"Prepared" by Next March Geneva, Apr. 1.
Germany will be prepared for' major war by March of next year! This was the startling information given to.day by high military attaches nations subscribing to the League' of Nations.
Estimates by the majority of the! and pilots, compared with 2.200 [Great Britain and 5,000 in. France.
French officials said that while it true that Germany lacks heavy bombing planes, she is rushing to} completion a vast number of this type. of craft. "And," one official com. mented, "Germany is building military planes with fighting quailies superior to those of other nations."
"The German War Ministry, it was stated, started tong before last October on designing the modern death-dealing equipment of war. Models} were reported destroyed, but blue. prints and plans were carefully stored away for future reference.
'When the ReichsfGhrer, Herr Adolf ier, gave the order In' October for: the construction of military equipment, foreign informants said, the nation launched on a gigantic build. ing programme which, by March next year, should produce enough to suply a sfiant regular army and a consi. erable number of reserves—United Press
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.