To return to our description of the mode of recruiting.
The lists having been duly posted up, a day is appointed for drawing the lots. This public ceremony is presided over by the "Sous-préfet" of the "Arrondissement." Having counted the number of names on the list, the Sous-préfet places a corresponding number of tickets, each bearing a number, in an urn: he then calls out the names of the young men, and each in turn draws a ticket; in case of absence of one of them his lot is drawn by the Mayor. As already explained only a certain number of men being required to serve three years, those who draw the highest numbers stand a chance of serving for but twelve months, besides those who have a right to claim the privilege, although the latter are also bound to draw lots.
All the young men whose names appear in the lists have next to appear before a Conseil de Revision (Revising Commission).
This Commission consists of:
The Prefect of the Department, who is ex-officio President.
A Conseiller de Préfecture.
A Member of the Conseil Général.
A Member of the Conseil d'arrondissement.
A General or Field Officer appointed by the military authority.
An Intendant militaire (Commissariat officer).
The chief Recruiting Officer of the district.
A military Surgeon, or a Doctor, is appointed by the military authorities to make a medical examination of all the conscripts, and upon his report the Commission decides by vote whether each individual conscript shall serve or not. It should be added that the minimum height is 5 feet 0½ inch.
The Commission also decides upon claims of exemption made by sons of foreigners, and upon the claims of those entitled to a service of one year only.[2]
Each conscript subsequently receives his feuille de route, stating the regiment he must join, and the date on which he must join it, and making an allowance for his journey to the town where he is to be quartered.[3] From the moment conscripts receive their feuilles de route they are under military law, and can only be tried by court-martial for any crimes or offences they may commit.
Men while serving for a month in the reserve, or for a fortnight in the territorial army, are also exclusively under martial law for the time being. Even in the case of a soldier who has finished his service the fact of his assaulting one of his former superiors (from a Corporal upwards) renders him liable to be tried by court-martial "should such assault be considered the result of revenge for a punishment received during his service."—(Art. 223 and 224 of the Code of Military Justice.) So that a man who has been abominably treated during his time of service and who gives a good hiding to one of his former officers ten or twenty years later, is liable to be tried by the military authorities.