Immense Armies | AdventAI

Seventh-day Adventist Missionary Society · Oakland, California · Aug 31, 1882

Immense Armies.

The armies of the six great powers which may become embroiled by the disturbance in Egypt, and which they maintain on a peace footing, number in the aggregate 2,400,000. These immense forces may be doubled in case of necessity. The effective strength of the British army is 175,000, of which 50,000 are cavalrymen and 30,000 artillerymen. There are said to be just now 60,000 in Ireland, while 70,000 to 80,000 are abroad in India, South Africa, and other places. The number available to crush Arabi Bey is, therefore, not large. The army which France maintains on a peace footing is 500,000; while her navy, in respect to heavily armed ships carrying immense guns, is more efficient than that of England. Germany has 425,000 men in her armies, prepared for any emergency, and kept ready to withstand the millions of bayonets which Bismarck says point with hostile intent toward the center of Europe. Russia has a standing army of 800,000 men, which can be increased to 2,300,000. The available forces which Italy can at once bring into the field number 285,000; while Turkey, though poor, bankrupt, and crippled, has ready an army of 150,000 men. The navies of the great powers, in respect to strength, stand about in the following order: England, France, Italy, Russia, Turkey, Germany. Should there be a war involving all these immense forces, it would be the most terrible one that Europe has ever seen.—S. F. Chronicle.