No. 260.
Mr. White
to Mr. Evarts.
Berlin, January 23, 1880. (Received February 11.)
Sir: The project of a law laid yesterday before the Bundesrath (Federal Council) of the empire indicates that this government has decided to go still further in the military development of the nation.
Under this proposal, which will doubtless become a law, there will be added to the German army from the 1st of April next, of—
Infantry, eleven new regiments (eight Prussian, one Bavarian, two Saxon), and one additional battalion will be added to the regiment of the Grand Duchy of Hesse;
Field artillery, one regiment (Prussian) of eight batteries, and thirty-two batteries (twenty-four Prussian, four Bavarian, two Saxon, two Würtemberg) which will be added to the regiments already existing;
Lighter artillery, one regiment (Prussian);
Pioneers, one regiment (Prussian).
The German army will thus be strengthened by about 30,000 men and 300 guns; and the number of men under arms during peace will, in future, be about 427,270.
An especially noteworthy feature in the proposal is one under which all men who were exempted from military service and enrolled in the reserve shall be drilled a total number of twenty weeks at four different periods. Thus a large number of men hitherto undrilled will be instructed and prepared to enter actual service in time of need.
The project makes an estimate of the cost of these additions and changes as follows: Immediate outlay, 26,713,166 marks; and the yearly outlay for their maintenance, 17,116,242 marks.
It is evident from this step on the part of the Imperial Government that all hopes of the slightest diminution of the enormous European standing armies must be given up for some years to come, and that Count von Moltke’s famous remark, to the effect that for the next fifty years Germany must make constant exertions to consolidate her power and maintain her recent acquisitions, embodies a truth which all other nations have to bear in mind.
I have, &c.,