If there were people in Germany inclined to overlook or to minimize this
constantly growing menace from France, their eyes must have been opened
when in 1912 the French Government, having previously abolished the
one-year volunteers, raised the duration of active military service for
every Frenchman from two years to three, and, in addition to this,
called out in the Autumn of 1913 the recruits not only of the year whose
turn had come, namely, the recruits born in 1892, but also those born
in 1893. This was a measure nearly identical with mobilization; it was a
measure which clearly showed that France would not delay much longer
striking the deadly blow. For no nation could possibly stand for any
length of time this terrific strain of holding under the colors its
entire male population from the twentieth to the twenty-fourth year. No
wonder that the Paris papers were speaking as long ago as the Summer of
1912 of the regiments stationed in the Eastern Departments as the
"vanguard of our glorious army," and were advocating double pay for
them, as being practically in contact with the enemy.
The second foe now threatening the destruction of Germany is England.
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