| Show BRITISH AND RUSSIAN FORCES I The Relative Strength of the Tuo I Great Armies and Navies The comparative military strength of England and Russia has become a question ques-tion of the hour In the British army the number of men registered on the regimental establishments of the army the auxiliary forces and the reserves is made up for as late a date as January 1 1885 The effective strength on that date of the total home and colonial forces numbered 577334 The peace effective strength of the Russian military establishment is something some-thing over 750000 men At a recent date the regular troops numbered about 700 000 and the Cossack and irregular troops brought the aggregate peace effective to 757238 The war footing is nearly two millions 1917904 This great addition is due to the universal liability to service of the armsbearing population Russian subjects unless exenipted must serve for six yea ui the active army nine on furlough t rye and five in the second I sec-ond restno As there are manv ex ei ptions from the annual contingent fo service in the active army and navy the total Russian force that could possibly be organized and used including the iniliti called out in war would be much greater nearly three millions So on the othe hand Englands actual effective already spoken of could be in time enormously increased from her great Indian and colonial colo-nial populations It will be observed tim Englands regimental force of regulars of all ranks numbers about 130000 exclusive exclu-sive of the India establishment wind swells the total to about 190000 The British navy is i of course greatly superior to the Russian The latter is credited with 26 ironclads built and building but as hobart Pasha says one cannot think there is much to fear from her fleet when such vessels as the Peter the Great and the two Popoffkas are among its most formidable items The British nayyexcludinga score of her ironclads considered obsolete has about thin t powerful armed battle ships with aboU ten more under construction They range from 4000 to 12000 tons displacement displace-ment the average being over 8000 Their thickness of armor on the waterline water-line ranges from the nine inches of the Hercules to the twentyfour of the Inflexible Inflex-ible and the average is over thirtysix inches Only one of them has so low a speed as twelve knots and the average is fourteen A few carry only the 12ton or 18ton guns but the greater number have the 25ton the 3Ston the 43ton or the 63ton guns while the Inflexible carries four of 80 tons Besides her ironclads England has a force of swift commerce destroyers During the last live years she has launched or laid down thirtyeight of these Russia on her part has of late paid great attention to coast defence She has a larger number of torpedo boats than any other nation Having found it hopeless hope-less to overtake England in aggressive naval strength she has devoted herself the more energetically to u system of defense de-fense against the attacks of the huge British ironclads 4t |
