[APPENDIX A]
No allusion has been made in the Introduction to the pay of officers, nor to the actual cost of the keep of troopers. Being unable to find any documents on which to base my calculations, I appealed to M. Urbain Gohier, the French writer whose authority on this subject is the greatest, and I append the reply which he very kindly sent me:
[Translation.]
Paris, April 8, 1899.
Dear Sir,
Subjoined are the chief items of the budget for pay—which is the same in all branches of the service so far as officers are concerned.
As to the average cost of the soldier for maintenance, food, &c., it is impossible to arrive at it.
Figures have been given from time to time, but they are purely imaginary.
Expenses of all kinds are scattered under twenty different headings in our budget, and the Reporter-General for that of 1899 has announced that nobody, either at the War Office or in Parliament, can accurately dissect the expenditure.