LETTERS TO THE EDITOR.
THE MILITARY STRENGTH OF GERMANY.
ITO TES EDITOR Or TEE .` SPICTATOIL") you kindly allow me to correct a statement in your- paper of May 22? The writer of the article "Disarmament as a Security for Peace" is, I am bold to say, quite wrong in uttering such a sentence as "Germany is afraid of France." If he would only look at our army, which is now being provided with the Mauser gun, a weapon superior to the Chassepat of the French, and a rival of the Snider of the English; at the improvements which are being made in every department referring to war,--e.g., the creation of the Eisenbahn-Abtheilung (Railway Division), a body of men especially trained to construct and destroy railway lines, the further development of the military "telegraph din- sion," the gunboats which have been built for the purpose of defending our Father Rhine, &c.; at the training which every soldier, not only of the Line, but also of the "Reserve" and the "Landwehr," has to undergo at the fortresses, especially on the French frontiers, Strasbourg, Mainz, Coblenz, Metz, he would conceive that Germany or Prussia does not want to be afraid of France. Let us suppose France would again declare war to Prussia, the German armies would be before the gates of Paris (or rather the forts) within a month from the opening of the actual hostilities, and the Prussians might realise the saying of the French, mutatis mutandis, "Nous dejeimons au Rhin, nous -dlnons h Berlin, nous soupons it Konigsberg."
"It is, indeed, "only a coalition which could put Germany in tremor" (see Spectator, No. 2442, p. 490). But should even a coalition be formed against Prussia, did not, I venture to ask, Frederick IL, King of Prussia, fight against Austria, the then German Empire, France, and Russia without any ally except the subsidies paid to him by Great Britain ; and shall not the German Emperor and King of Prussia, commander-in-chief of 1,300,000 men (without taking in account the " Landsturm "), stand his ground against any odds ? Finally, I wish to remark that it is -quite wrong to represent Prussia as intending a new aggressive war either against France, or Austria, or Russia. We do not want any more French provinces, after having retaken the old German town Strasbourg and kept Metz as a bulwark against France, neither does any-one even think of conquering the Baltic provinces. Concerning the German provinces of Austria, it is pre- posterous to say anything at present about their future. It is possible that (according to the law of gravitation) they may belong in some future time to the German Empire, but under the present circumstances, Prussia will not and does not declare war against Austria.—I am, Sir, &c., Breslau, May 27. H. EHRENTHAL, Dr. Ph., L.C.P.
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