The Swiss Republic

by Boyd Winchester

Fifth year, sixteen days as a trained soldier.

Seventh year, sixteen days as a trained soldier.

Ninth year, sixteen days as a trained soldier.

Total, one hundred and nine days.

The cavalry is called out annually instead of biennially, and as a compensation for this additional drill service, the men are discharged from the Élite two years sooner than the infantry, or at the age of thirty.

The standard of height required of the recruit is five feet one and a half inches, and the chest measurement in no case less than thirty-one and a half inches.[69] Men not of the required height, if specially fitted, by profession or business, for service in the administrative troops or as drummers, trumpeters, armorers, or other military handicraftsmen, may be recruited to serve in these capacities if their height is not less than five feet five-eighths of an inch. The number of recruits examined annually—that is to say, the number of young men who become subject every year to military service—is about thirty thousand. A permanent corps of one hundred and eighty-seven instructors of various grades, and representing all the arms of the service, is maintained. The members of this corps are about the only permanently paid officers of the Swiss army. But they must have undergone a thorough course of education and passed an examination at one of the training establishments erected for the purpose. The centre of these is the military academy at Thun, near Bern, maintained by the Confederation, and which supplies the army both with the highest class of officers and with teachers to instruct the lower grades.

Besides this academy or Central Militär-Schule there are special training-schools for the various branches of the service, especially the artillery and the Scharfschützen or picked riflemen. During the period of instruction eight hours is laid down as the minimum of daily drilling. The arms, clothing, and personal accoutrements remain in the possession of the soldier, and he is expected to keep each article in good condition and in readiness for inspection at any moment; and he is not permitted to wear his uniform except when on active duty. The inspection of arms, accoutrements, etc., is made annually, and is conducted with much strictness; any repairs needed are ordered to be done at the owner’s expense; and negligence in complying with the law subjects the party to a fine, and in some instances to imprisonment. At the termination of the Élite service, the uniform is retained by the recruit, but the arms and accoutrements are surrendered to the Canton. Horses are provided for the cavalry in this manner: the horses are first purchased by the government through officers designated for that purpose; these are sent to the government cavalry stable, thoroughly broken, then sold to such cavalry recruits as may require them. The sale is made at public auction to the recruits, and one-half of the price at which the animal is knocked down is paid by the Confederation and the other half by the recruit. One-tenth of the recruit’s share, however, is refunded to him at the end of each year’s service, so that after ten trainings the horse becomes his personal property. During the years of service the horse remains at the disposal of the government, but in fact is only required during the annual drill, and in the interval remains in the possession of its part owner, at his own cost. He may work the animal, but it cannot be let out for hire or lent, and he is responsible for its care and good condition. If the horse dies in the service, one-half of the value of the recruit’s share is refunded to him; if, on the other hand, the horse dies when not in the service, the recruit pays the government a corresponding amount, unless he can show that the death was in no way occasioned by carelessness or culpable negligence. The same liability is incurred in case of injury to the animal, unless it occurred from ordinary fair usage. In either case, if the recruit be found in fault he is compelled to provide himself with another horse. These horses are inspected at least once a year by military veterinary surgeons. Mounted officers must provide their own horses. In time of war the Piketstellung can be declared by the Federal Council, by which the sale of horses throughout the Confederation is forbidden.

The strength of the several lines of the army in 1888, as obtained from an official of the military department, was—Élite, 117,179, Landwehr, 84,046, which, with the Landsturm, reckoned at 200,000, gave in case of extreme emergency an available force of 401,225.

The Landsturm has recently been divided into two classes, the armed Landsturm and the auxiliary forces; the latter is composed of pioneers, administrative troops, guides, and velocipedists: both of these classes, under a federal law of 1887, when called out, are placed on the same footing, with reference to the rights of combatants, as the Élite or the Landwehr. The first line, or Élite, must be regarded as the only active force homogeneous in its parts and complete in its equipment. Preference for infantry is still preserved among the Swiss, the cavalry representing only one twenty-seventh of the force. This disproportion may be somewhat ascribed to two facts: first, on account of the expense involved in the advance payment to be made on the purchase of a horse, and then that in Switzerland cavalry would hardly ever be required except for reconnoitring or vedette duties. The election on the part of recruits to join the cavalry is voluntary; but having selected that branch they must remain in it.

The Vetterli rifle, with a magazine containing eleven cartridges, has been used by the army; but after long and thorough experiments under government expert commissions with the Rubin rifle, a later and improved patent, in June, 1889, it was accepted, and is being rapidly substituted. The budget for 1890 contains an appropriation of 5,734,600 francs for the purchase of these rifles and 3,000,000 francs for ammunition.