9. ARMY AND NAVY. Owing •to the many revolutions and upheavals through which Mexico has passed since it became an independ ent country in 1821, the armed forces of the republic have twn a constently varying quasi tity., At the time of the collapse of the Maxi milian •empire in 1867 there were four great military !centres, the north,. the west, the centre, and' the southeast. When Porfirio Diaz took the city of Mexico in 1867 he had under his command more men than he had in the whole military force of the republic in 1910, when he was faced with an uprising which was destined, in less than a year, to send him into exile from which he never returned. Juarez, who on the death of Maximilian, was acknowl edged everywhere as the legitimate ruler of Mexico, found, one of his greatest: problems in the reduction of the armed forces which he had Inherited from the prolonged conflict against the French, the clericals and the Re actionary party. , He proceeded to solve it by dismissing from service hundreds of soldiers and, officers, many of whom, being unfitted for and 'having ho means of making a living, became a constant thorn in the already troubled side of the executive. Bandits roamed the' country and made so bold as to even invade the capital itself. Robbers, on a less preten tious scale, were ,everywhere; and most of them had either been formed from or organ ized by the dismissed soldiers of the republic or the forces of the Reactionary party. Diaz faced the,.same condition of affairs when he came into power in 1876. But he was wiser in his day than Juarez had been in his, probably because he was a thorough soldier and under stood the soldier's point of view. He saw, in the very restless element that had given the Indian President so much trouble, the raw material out of which to create a rampart against the lawlessness that had overrun the land. In the course of a few years he had organized out of this unpromising material the resales (rural guard), which became as famous in Mexico as the Northwest Mounted Police is in Canada. These guardians.of the peace, which were to be found in organized groups in the towns, cities and villages throughout the coun try, were military in every sense except that they were under the jurisdiction of the Depart ment of the Interior (Gobernacion) instead of that of War. However, in the last few months of the Diaz administration (1911), the rurales were placed under the jurisdiction of the War Department, for strictly military considerations. Throughout the trouble they remained, for the most part, faithful to the government, but be coming later on disorganized through the many political changes that' followed one another in rapid succession, they were finally disbanded. Throughout his long term of office, which ex tended from, 1876 to 1880 and from 1884 to 1911, General Diaz gradually reduced the Lary force of the republic and aimed at increas ing its efficiency. In 1910 the standing army of the republic consisted of less than 1,000 commissioned officers of all grades and less than 25,000 non-commissioned officers and men. Thus the 'government, which had been lulled into fancied security, through the years of peace which had followed the assumption of the presidency by Diaz, found itself unprepared to,deal with a revolution like that of Madero, which affected the greater part of the country. The peace standing of the Mexican army was, in. 1914: Commissioned officers, 3,112; non commissioned officers and men, 26,431. The expengqi of * maintenance of the ariped forces of the republic, the garrisons, etc., was, in the fiscal year ending 30 June 1914, over $40,000,000 Mexican money, or more than one third of the whole revenue of the republic. As this amount embraces only the forces of the de facto government, it is probable that nearly as much more was spent in the mainte nance of the revolutionary forces then in the field against the former. On 30 June 1916, A. G. Garcia, Mexican inspector of consulates stationed in the United States, gave the strength of the Constitutionalist army as 175,000 officers and men, all of which he claimed were well armed and uniformed. Other authorities place the Constitutionalist forces at between 85,000 and 100,000. This is considerably above the
authorized peace strength which is 43,967, com missioned officers, non-commissioned officeri and men. During the Diaz regime many new barracks were built and many old ones were reorganized and made modern. A school of Aspirantes (officers in training) was opened at Tlalpam, in the Federal District a short dis tance from the capital for the military instruc tion of men in all branches of the service who could not afford to go through the longer and more thorough course given in the National Military School in Chapultepec. Owing to the part the pupils of this Tlalpam school took in the uprising under Generals Mondragen, Felix Diaz and Reyes in February 1913, it was closed. The West Point of Mexico, however, is the Chapultepec school, which occupies a part of the famous Chapultepec building, the official residence of the President of Mexico. There are generally in attendance about 300 students all being trained for officers in the Mexican army at the government expense. The school also offers an excellent post-graduate course in ad vanced engineering, topography, military juris prudence, ordnance, military history, advanced military tactics and an extensive course in the geography of the country which, from the military point of view, is extremely difficult. The present Constitutionalist government, fol lowing in the footsteps of the Diaz administra tion, is attempting to educate the illiterate sol diers in the ranks of the army, or at least to teach them to read and write. According to the recent amendments to the Mexican consti tution, service in the army is obligatory on every citizen of the republic, and in time of war the conscription covers from three to five years; but as a matter of fact only the lower classes are forced into the army. In time of peace the Mexican army now consists of 34 battalions of infantry, 18 regiments of cavalry, one regiment of horse artillery, two regiments of field artillery, one regiment of mountain guns, two battalions of garrison artillery and one battalion of engineers, each battalion con sisting of four batteries. On mobilization each four-company battalion (including the engi neers) forms a regiment of two battalions while the four-battalion regiments are raised to six battalions and the cavalry regiments to six squadrons.
Owing to the difficulty which the Consti tutionalist government has met with in securing arms, the armament of the forces is of differ ent kinds, including various Mauser models for the infantry, and Remington rifles of a date as far back as 1893, the Mauser carbine for the cavalry, and other arms of German and Japan ese make. The field and horse artillery law Q. F. guns on the Schneider-Canat system; while the coast defense consists, in so far it is modern, principally of guns of Freock make.
The Mexican The navy consists ci the gunboats Vera Cruz, Zaragoza, Bravo, Gee. erat Guerrero and Morelos, and the transports Progreso and Oaxaca. The Zaragoza is 213 feet in length, has a displacement of 1,226 ices and a speed of 13 knots, is built of steel and its armament consists of six Canat guns, tvi, Nordenfeldt rapid fire guns and two Hotchkiss revolving guns. The Vera Cruz is 200 feet length, 1,000 tons displacement, has a speed cf 16 knots and is built of steel. It has two Bethlehem rapid fire guns, 6 semi-automats: rapid fire guns and one Whitehead torpedo gun. The Bravo and Morelos are each 252 feet in length, have 2,500 horse power and a speed of 16 knots. They are built of steel, and each carries two Bethlehem rapid fire guns and se. Schneider-Canat rapid-fire guns. The Progreso is 230 feet in length, has 1,585 tons displace ment, a speed of 12 miles, is built of steel ard will carry 250 tons of cargo and 600 men, Intl the usual complement of officers. The Oaxaca is 100 feet in length, its tonnage is 979, its sped 7 knots, and it is built of steel and will car• 300 tons of cargo, 200 cattle and 500 me Reserves are provided for service in the in case of war, which can, if needed, be mad to swell the entire fighting force to 500,000 men.