MILITARY NEEDS.
[To THE EDITOR OF THE "SPECTATOR."]
SIB,—The problem presented to the German Empire by the immediate need for a considerable military expedition to China is interesting and instructive. Germany, the most completely armed and disciplined nation of Europe, has no standing professional army ready for a sudden and distant campaign. Her highly perfected system can readily mobilise a couple of millions of soldiers; it has not been framed to meet the contingency of a relatively small expedition. Great Britain offers a singular contrast to this state of things. With our standing army and habit of small wars, we can, under normal conditions, easily despatch forty or fifty thousand men to any part of the world, while for a European war, involving the employment of a really great army, we are deplorably unprepared. We are strong where Germany is weak, and weak where she is strong. If while maintaining and improving, as we mean to improve, our small standing professional army, we consent to train, equip, and organise the whole available manhood of the nation, we may feel ourselves not only secure from attack at home, but ready at all points for the best means of defence, and that is swift attack and speedy and constant augmentation of the attacking force. The fostering of a "world-empire" and the growth of her colonial responsibilities will force upon Germany the creation of a permanent standing army in addition to the great national organisation she possesses. The tremendous and ever-increasing Imperial responsibilities we own and are now, fortunately, minded to appreciate will surely force us to the arming of the nation.—I am, Sir, &e., E. P. WARREN.
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