The Peace Congress at the Hague enjoyed a sensation on
Monday. The Russian proposal that armaments must be reduced was under discussion when Colonel von Gross von Schwartzholl, the German military delegate, assailed it on the ground of needlessness. He utterly denied that the nations were crushed by their armaments. Personal service in the Army was not a burden or an impost, but a patriotic duty ; it had made Germany, and as for its economic conse- quences, look round. Was Germany ever more prosperous, or were the public and private standards of living ever higher ? Howcame that, if German armaments impoverished Germany ? The delegates sat thunderstruck, and it is understood that the project of reducing or limiting armaments is already dead. There can be no doubt that the material loss caused by heavy armaments is often exaggerated, the strength and habit of obedience acquired in barracks increasing the force of men in subsequent civil life, but a reply might easily have been made to Colonel von Schwartzhoff. Which will add most to national wealth, a thousand men who plant potatoes or a thousand men who eat them ? For industrial purposes the half-million of men in barracks are so many dead men. They may be in- valuable for other reasons, but nothing is gained by denying the actual economic loss.
Previous page
