| Show EUROPEAN ARMIES REPORTS from europe are full of war alarms the situation over there is to put it mildly critical in the ex the manoeuvres in which the french army is being exercised A at present occasion serious comment in london as well as in european capitals the sham warfare of today taday is contrasted with that of twenty one years ago when general lebouf as sur edthe the french emperor that his army was ready to march on berlin history tells us be how little right the gallic soldier was wag ani what a humiliation the french people experienced shortly after however it was not all clear loss the empire was subverted and replaced by a republic it is said the french army of today isa Is a perfect one and the evolutions bet being ng performed at present are stated to resemble actual warfare with germany but so was it said at the opening of the franco rus sian war that there was not even a gaiter button missing in the whole french army it took only a few months to prove how fallacious were the opinions of french army experts and the miserable fiasco at sedan brought a nation to its senses but what adds interest to the situation at present in europe is the fact that french bankers have have loaned russia francs the czar has obtained the ban which the hebrew bankers of europe refused to contract this shows that the russian minister of finance is no neophyte in political economy he availed himself of the fraternal feeling between france and russia begotten of the reception accorded to french vessels at cron stadt he arranged with a group of paris bankers for the issue of his loan on very favorable terms term sham warfare Is the order of the day in every country in europe should this be the prelude to actual war what a horrible probability presents itself we are all more or less superficially familiar with the size and efficiency of k the armies of europe we rarely stop to contemplate actual figures agures but when we do we are appalled at their dimensions the armies of the various countries countr lea of europe as now organized are d divided into four departments there 4 to la first the active army 11 second the 5 afield bold reserve third the first arat reis me berve 1 1 and fourth the second re r serve served 1 taking the grand totals of V these departments for the different b armies we find that ger many has bas non commis kar ff stoned officers and men together with commissioned officers france has 41 noncommissioned commissioned non officers ers and men with officers italy has hals noncommissioned commissioned non ka it officers and vaen men with officers arf austria hungary has non officers and men with officers cussia has of all ranks great britain and turkey even the second and third rate powers have large armies the grand total of the standing armies and reserves of spain is of belgium of the netherlands of denmark of sweden and norway of bervia Servia of roumania of roumela Boum Jia and V C bulgaria IA these figures all summed to gether nake make a grand total ot some ome thing over of men melli actually available for war and ready to after a very short interval in active service ready for war prance france had bad last december officers anu men germany had W italy austria russia great britain and turkey the men employed in the various navies both active and reserve are not included in these them figures the immediate cause of the present V excitement was the permission granted by turkey to a russian war vessel to pass the dardanelles Darda Dard nelles anellee russia was previously shut shutout out from the rus rum at the request of turkey by hugland england france and italy now turkey yields to her old time enemy the czar and him bim to enter the mediterranean and becomes a menace to italy austria england and perhaps france the rho latter has vast possessions on the shores of the mediterranean but if prance france and russia became allies it is difficult to see what the end ruay may be in case of a conflict with the other powers altogether the situation is serious and the signs were uever never more ominous mincus of a great european war |
