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number (chosen by lot) join the army, the remainder are drafted into the Ersatztruppen, a kind of reserve, where the period of service is twelve years. Men in the Ersatztruppen are liable to three periods of drill (of ten, six, and four weeks respectively); but as financial considerations allow of only a certain number being so drilled, many receive no military training at all. At the end of twelve years the trained members of the Ersatz pass into the first ban of the Landsturm, the untrained into the second ban. By the Army Act, which came into force on October 1, 1893, the annual levies were increased by about 60,000 men, and the period of service under arms of the infantry was reduced from 3 to 2 years, that of the cavalry and horse artillery being 3 years as before. One-year volunteers, of whom about 8,000 join annually, serve at their own charges, and are not reckoned in the legal peace strength. Non-commissioned officers are generally appointed from men desiring to make the army their profession.

All able-bodied men between the age of seventeen and forty-five, who are neither in the standing army nor the reserves, must belong to the Landsturm, which is only called out in the event of an invasion of Germany. The Landsturm is divided into two classes or 'bans'; to the first ban belong those between the ages of seventeen and thirty-nine; to the second those between thirty-nine and forty-five.

The following table shows the strength and organisation of the imperial army on the peace footing in 1904 :

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By the law of March 25, 1899, in force to March 31, 1904, the peace strength of the imperial army was 495,500 men, besides officers, surgeons, paymasters, &c. A bill has been prepared (1904) providing for a gradual increase of the peace strength till, in 1909, it reaches the number of 505,839, at which number it will be maintained up till March 31, 1910.

No official returns of the war-strength of the German army are published; but it is estimated that in the last extremity Germany on her present organisation would have a war-strength of over 3,000,000 trained men.

The mass of soldiers thus raised is divided into companies, battalions, regiments, and corps d'armée. The strength of an ordinary battalion in peace is 544 men, raised in war to 1,002 by calling in part of the reserves; it is divided into four companies, each of which in war consists of 250 men. Exceptions to this general rule are the battalions of the guards and the regiments in garrison in the Reichsland of Alsace-Lorraine, the strength of which on the peace footing is 686 men. During peace each regiment of infantry consists of three battalions, each brigade of two regiments; each infantry division of two brigades, to which, under the command of the divisional general, four squadrons of cavalry, four batteries of artillery, each of six guns, and either a battalion of riflemen or a battalion of pioneers are attached. Each field-artillery regiment is divided into three detachments, each of two, three or four batteries. In all there are 583 field batteries, of which 47 are mounted. Each battery numbers, as a rule, in peace four, in war six, fully mounted guns. The corps d'armée is considered a unit which is independent in itself, and includes not only troops of all three arms, but a portion of all the stores and appliances which are required by a whole army. Each corps d'armée consists of two divisions of infantry, a cavalry division of four regiments, with two horse-artillery batteries attached, besides the two cavalry regiments attached to the infantry divisions, and a reserve of artillery of six field batteries and one mounted battery. There is, moreover, attached to each corps d'armée one battalion of pioneers and one of train.

The corps d'armée, with the exception of the corps of the guards, are locally distributed through the Empire. There are (besides the Prussian corps of the guards) 22 army corps districts, which are named after Prussian provinces, and after States of the Empire. They are:-1, East Prussia; 2, Pomerania; 3, Brandenburg; 4, Saxony; 5, Posen; 6, Silesia; 7, Westphalia; 8, Rhineland; 9, Schleswig-Holstein; 10, Hanover; 11, HesseNassau; 12 and 19, Saxony; 13, Württemberg; 14, Baden; 15, Alsace; 16, Lorraine; 17, West Prussia; 18, Hesse-Nassau and the Grand Duchy of Hesse; and the 1st, 2nd, and 3rd Royal Bavarian Army Corps. Three of these army corps were added in 1899; so that the total war-forces would embrace 23 corps, the guards corps forming the 23rd.

III. NAVY.

After the war of 1870-71 the German navy was re-organised, and a Flottengründungsplan laid down. By a cabinet order of March 30, 1889, the administration was wholly re-organised. The chief command was separated from the administration, and vested in a naval officer, while the administration was transferred to the Reichsmarineamt, having at its head, under the chancellor, the naval secretary of state. The first of these officials deals generally with the movements of the fleet, and with questions relating to coast defence, training, the efficiency of the personnel, &c.; while the

imperial arsenals and dockyards, matters more especially concerning the matériel, clothing, victualling, &c., fall to the department of the secretary of state. The ships of the German navy are divided between the Baltic and North Sea stations. The chief naval establishments are at Kiel on the Baltic and Wilhelmshaven on the North Sea, and the Kaiser Wilhelm Canal, across the Schleswig-Holstein neck from Kiel to the Elbe, which was opened in the month of June, 1895, facilitates the transference of forces from one base to the other.

In the following tabular statement of the strength of the German fleet, is shown.

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Certain ships which have no fighting value, but are used for police and harbour purposes, are omitted.

The table which follows of the German armour-clad fleet is arranged in a manner similar to that adopted in the case of the British and French navies. The ships named in italics are not yet ready for sea.

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Water-tube boilers in the German Navy are mostly Thornycroft-Schulz and Dürr. The German fleet is distributed chiefly for home defence. For the present year the dispositions are :

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Some gunboats are also on these stations, and in Australian and African water. Each Reserve fleet has two additional Coast battleships in reserve for it. The Kaisers are among the most heavily armed ships afloat, but the quickfirers are very liable to be put out of action. The Fürst Bismark is usually called an armoured cruiser, but is really almost akin to a battleship, little inferior to the Kaiser Friedrich III. The Wittelsbach and other new 12,000 tons ships are great improvements on the Kaiser Friedrich III., the Q.F. guns being mostly in armoured batteries amidships, well protected, and are frequently regarded as first-class ships, despite the absence of armourpiercing guns of large calibre. The Brandenburg class carry 4 11 inch of 40 calibres, the other two 11 inch (carried amidships) are of 35 calibres

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