LETTERS TO THE EDITOR.
THE SWISS MILITIA SYSTEM.
[To THY EDITOR OF TRIO " SPECTATOR:1
Srn,—During a period of seven fully occupied days in the present month an English Committee of Inquiry, consisting in all of thirty persons, and comprising Members of both Houses of Parliament of various shades of political opinion, officers of the British Regular and Auxiliary Forces, members of the National Service League, and representatives of various Trade-Unions in the United Kingdom and of the Press, were the guests of the Swiss Government for the purposes of witnessing the Swiss Army Manoeuvres then being carried out, and visiting various training-schools and institutions connected with the armed forces of Switzerland. The Committee owed its origin to the initiative of the National Service League, which advocates universal military training for home defence on a compulsory basis for all able-bodied male citizens of suitable age (with a few exceptions), exclusive of members of the Regular Army or Navy or the mercantile marine. The objects of the Committee were to ascertain, first, how far the very short periods of training enforced in the Swiss Militia sufficed to produce efficient soldiers ; secondly, whether the efficiency attained was combined with the minimum of interference with the civil and industrial life of the Swiss people ; and, lastly, to form some opinion as to the extent to which the Swiss Militia system is suitable for adaptation to the requirements of a Home Defence Army for the United Kingdom, as distinguished from a more highly trained Regular Force for foreign service.
Short as was the period at the disposal of the English Com- mittee, the generous hospitality and the facilities afforded by the Federal Government and the military authorities, and the programme drawn up by the able officers of the General Staff who accompanied the Committee throughout their visit, were so complete and admirable that it was possible for the members of the Committee, of whom the writer was one, to form a definite, if general, view of the value and efficacy of Swiss military training.
Before briefly enumerating the periods and conditions of training enforced in the Swiss Militia, let me remind the reader that there is in Switzerland no standing or Regular Army, and consequently no professional soldiers, as we under- stand those terms, with the exception of a small permanent body of officers, who form the General Staff, and are supple- mented by a limited number of officers and non-commissioned officers specially engaged for the instruction of recruits, and of the various classes formed in permanent military schools for the training of officers and non-commissioned officers. The General Staff is at all times available for purposes of mili- tary organisation, including mobilisation for peace manoeuvres, or for war, should the necessity arise. It must be noted that all promotion, without exception, is from the ranks, and that the highest rank attainable in the Swiss Militia—namely, that of Colonel—can only be reached by passing first through all the lower grades.
Passing now to the question of compulsory service, and the periods and conditions of training, every Swiss citizen is under the obligation to render military service, coraniOncing upon the completion of his twentieth year, and all such as are found to be mentally and physically fit when called up are passed into the Army. The unfit pay a tax in proportion to their own, or their parents', means, varying from 6s. 3d. to £120 annually. The number of those declared fit is about fifty-two per cent. of those called up, and furnishes an annual number of 28,000 to 29,000 recruits. The recruit is enlisted and clothed by the Council of his own canton, and subsequently posted to a regiment raised in the canton, but is armed by the Federal Council; and he keeps his rifle and equipment at his own home during the whole period of his service in the Militia.
The Army is divided into three categories :—(1) The Auszug or Elite, including all men from twenty years of age to the completion of their thirty-second year (consisting in 1906 of 137,000 men) ; (2) the Landwehr, including all men from the completion of their thirty-second year to the completion of their forty-fourth year (consisting in 1906 of 92,000 men); and (3) the Landsturm, including all men not already serving in the Elite or Landwehr from the twentieth to the fiftieth year of their age, and also volun- teers of less or greater age. The Landsturm consists of two classes,—viz., (1) armed men (consisting in 1906 of 37,000 men), and (2) unarmed assistant troops (estimated in 1906 at 303,000 men). It is seen, therefore, that in 1906 Switzerland, with a population only just exceeding 3,000,000, possessed a Militia comprising 229,000 of the Elite and Landwehr, and a further trained force of Reserves (the Landsturm) containing about 340,000 men, exclusive of volunteers. With the exception of one period of eleven days' training in the case of the Landwehr, and one day in each year for the inspection of arms, neither the Landwehr nor the Landsturm are liable to be called out for drill or manoeuvres in time of peace, and it is therefore the men of the Elite only whose civil occupa- tions are really interfered with, and this force alone took part in the field operations witnessed by the Committee of Inquiry.
The recruit's course for the Elite is for the infantry forty- five days, for the artillery and engineers fifty-five days, and for the cavalry eighty days. In addition to the recruit's courses, the men in the Elite have to perform in each second year a repetition course of eighteen days, and, in the case of infantry, to go through a course of musketry every year in which there is no actual training. The above periods only relate to the rank-and-file of the different arms, but a con- siderable period of additional training has to be undergone by those who attain non-commissioned or commissioned rank. The net result, however, is a period of training for the Swiss Militia measurable by weeks and months as com- pared with years in other Continental armies, and a corre- spondingly small interruption of civil pursuits in the case
of the former.* It must, however, be borne in mind that this short period is preceded by gymnastic training in the national schools, and, in the case of a considerable percentage of recruits, by service in voluntary Cadet corps for lads from fourteen to sixteen, and in Volunteer corps of lads from sixteen to twenty years of age, without which preliminary training the military efficiency of the Swiss Militiaman could not in most cases be attained. To these must be added frequent practice with the rifle at Shooting Clubs or Associa- tions, of which there are at present 1,881 in Switzerland, with a total of 88,861 members.
The Committee of Inquiry visited the troops in bivouac after a long day's march and fighting, and were greatly struck by the absence of signs of fatigue in the men, which was the more remarkable as every infantryman carries an equipment weighing, with the inclusion of his rifle and uniform, from sixty-six to sixty-eight pounds. The physical endurance and cheerfulness of the men under this burden call for the highest admiration. The discipline of the troops and their efficiency in field operations also met with the entire approval of the military members of the Committee. Criticism of the tactics employed, especially in moving troops in too dense a formation under fire, and in the tardy support occasionally given to infantry by artillery, were occasionally indulged in ; but of the efficiency of the Swiss Militia as a field force for fighting purposes, and the high patriotic spirit that inspires it, no member of the Committee entertained any doubt. It is perhaps too much to say that the Swiss Militia is in all respects as finished or highly organised a military machine as the German Army, but it is, at the least, without doubt a fine and adequately trained force for home defence, and is, moreover, completely organised for rapid mobilisation. No less satis- factory is the undoubted popularity of the Swiss Army among all classes of the people. On all sides we were told of the eagerness of the Swiss youth to be accepted for military service, and his disappointment if rejected. The same fact was borne witness to by the enthusiasm displayed by the large crowds present at the review of the First Army Corps at the conclusion of the manoeuvres.
There remains only one other aspect of Swiss military service to be treated by the writer,—namely, the question of the amount of interference caused by it with industrial life, and its effect upon the national well-being. The former point was discussed by members of the Committee with repre- sentatives of three large engineering firms in the neighbour- hood of Zurich whose works were visited, and in each case the information given was the same. The directors stated that the inconvenience to their business, although in some cases appreciable, as when a good workman left them for a period of some weeks to attend a school of instruction for the rank of officer or non-commissioned officer, was on the whole very small, and that the men were distinctly quicker and better workmen for the military training they received. The fact that the longest period of training (viz., the recruit's course) takes place in the twenty-first year of a workman's age, and before he has usually attained a responsible position, must tend to decrease the inconvenience caused to his employers.
To sum up the conclusions arrived at by the writer. The Swiss compulsory Militia system produces a thoroughly efficient field force, and this in a degree to which it is impos- sible to attain under a voluntary system; it involves the least possible interference with civil and industrial life ; and in the opinion of the writer it presents a sound model on which we might form in this country an adequate and efficient force for home defence,—" a nation in arms." From such a force also we could obtain volunteers for service abroad in case of great national necessity. Lastly, it is a system which fosters a spirit of true patriotism, improves the physical and moral condition of the people, and is entirely compatible with those traditions of civic freedom which we share with the Swiss Republic.—I am, Sir, Sr.e., A. G. R.
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