The officers are trained in appropriate mili tary schools — the infantry and cavalry in that of Modena, the artillery and the engineers in the Military Academy of Turin, and in order to,, enter these instiutions one must pass a special ,exstiniaation and have •obtained a high school (Lyceum) The complementary officers, i.e., those young men who serve only in time of war in subaltern capacities, are taken from the one-year volun teers, or those recruits who belong to the pro fessional class; and being devoted to serious are permitted to serve 12 months only, in time of peace.
The cavalry, before taking service in a regi ment, are obliged to take up a special course in the Pinerolo School; the artillery and engineers must pursue • their studies in the Technical School at Turin. There is, besides, at Parma, a school where the infantry officers perfect themselves in the study of their profession.• .
As it was extremely difficult to diffuse mili tary instruction in the art of command, there was established in Turin the "School of Warp which has a large attendance, as its students have special advantages for the pursuit of an army career, and many • even aspire to a posi, lion in the The Italian army before the events.of 1911, 12 and 1914-18 had not tried its strength in a great European war, for in 1866 it had only initiated its present organization, in 1870 only a small portion of it undertook the occupation of Rome. and in the colonial campaigns its strength was not proved as a whole, but it was represented by a small portion of the army, hastily mobilized.
But if on these particular occasions it had no way of putting all its machinery to the test, that did not prevent the special attribute,of its officers bravery — and the excellence of its soldiery from being recognized. In the unfortunate battle of Adua a few thousand soldiers knew how to resist an innumerable horde of Sciyans and Abyssinians, and the acts of valor they performed excited the admiration of Europe, and the death of so many heroes, a Toselli, a Galliano, an Arimopdi and a Da hormida, gave Italy, the right to raise her head proudly on the field of defeat.
The people are proud of their army, for they behold it ever ready to march into danger, ever ready to come to their assistance;, in the cholerayear in Naples; in the serious inunda tions of the Veneto; in the earthquake of Liguria and Calabria; in the disaster of the volcanic eruptions, always and ever the Italian soldiery fraternized with the people and en deavored, to the best of its ability to aid them in their misfortunes, thus demonstrating that not alone in war may an army filled noble sentiments be of benefit to its country, Immediately after the war with Turkey the active army's strength was 308,300 men (peace establishment). The war in Europe, 1914-18, tested the flexibility of its organization. and the extraordinary result was that in three years, increasing tenfold, it became formidable even in the modern sense; for in 1916 the war effective of the Italian army was more than 3,150,000.
[Gen.] FORTUNATO MARAZZI, Member of Parliament, Formerly Secretary of State for War.