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Show IS WHOLLY UNPREPARED German Officer Says America Is in Need of a Great Army New York, Dec. 5. Another distinguished distin-guished foreign military authority is the guest ol New York city today. He is General Ernest Von Relchenau, the German army's chief authority on artillery. He comes to America to witness some govern merit tests at Sandy Hook as the representative f the Ehrhard company, manufacturers of guns and ammunition. This con- cern, which labors ollleially under the title of "RhelnlscJie Metallwaaren und Mashlnr-nfabrik, Dussoldorf." is the chief German competitor of the Krupp works. General Von Reichenau comes with war's alarms. The United States is not prepured for war, he declares. A large reserve army is needed, for rich nations must fight Asked as to i whether, In his opinion, America would i have to fight Japan, and whether sho i was prepared for war, ho said: "As to a war between America and Japan, I cannot speak; but I have an i Idea, Is It not so? If I should speak, it would get Into the papers and at I home make trouble for me But I can j i say that America is not prepared for 1 war. And that Is bad " ' The general continued: j I "General Wood was perfectly right ' in asking congress to give him money mon-ey with which to keep a large re-i re-i serve nrrnv of several hundred thousands thou-sands at his beck and call. 1 would ; go much further; I would urge unlver-j unlver-j sal conscription here, as we have in Germany. So you will see It. first in England, and then In the United j States. It Is a necessity. The time ' for disarmament is not approaching. I Will the lime ever come when men ' cease to eat? No. Well, a great I many people think civilization and peace are one and the same. It is just the opposite. The richer a na: tion becomes the more .she must arm herself. A poor man does not need protection; it is the rich who must defend his goods. So with the nations. na-tions. War is a natural function, a law of nature. We see It all around us In the struggle for existence, the struggle for life itself. ' Where will It all end? Well, each j nation must arm herself up to her ca- ! pacify. If a. man strikes. me,-I would! not hold one hand behind my 4ack. No, I would fight with both hands and both feet. So will the nations always prepare to fiuht with all the power they have. They must "It is necessary to prepare for war in peace You can t count on militia; mili-tia; ,ou must have an army, so mustered mus-tered and equipped that it can be mobilized on the frontiers in the least possible time. After war has been declared, a nation must not wait to strike; s.he must strike Immediate!-. The Japanese did no.t wait after the Russian war started." General Moltke said, when asked what ho would do if war were declared, that he would press an electric button, and that if he had to fight after that ho would consider himself a bad soldier." i The remark of II. H. Rogers, on his return from Germany, that the I American army was employing tactics , (200 years old, General Von Relche- nau did not agree with. He explained that the American army, what there was of it, was up to dale, but that, on account of its lack of size, it could not practice those maneuvers which i made a large army most effective and which were necessary in these days for the successful conduct of war. |