ITALY - GEOGRAPHY AND STATISTICS (cont.)

Army and Navy

By the law of 7th June 1875, all men capable of bearing arms are under obligation of military service from their twenty-first to the end of their thirty-ninth year. They are divided into three categories : the first and second consist of those who are to serve successively in the standing army (Esercito permanente), in the mobile (Milizia mobile, equivalent to the Prussian Landwehr), and in the territorial militia (Milizia territoriale, equivalent to Prussian Landsturm); the third serve in the territorial militia only. The men of the first category, that is, those who draw the first numbers in the conscription, serve eight or nine years in the regular standing army, four or five years in the mobile, and seven years in the militia, or, in the case of the cavalry, nine years in the regular army and ten in the militia,—the infantry spending three years and the cavalry five years under arms, and for the rest of their time forming the active reserve. The men of the second category, that is, those who do not draw the first figures at the conscription, serve five or six years in the regular army, four or three years in the mobile, and the remainder of their term in the militia. They only Tequire to be in arms for five months, and these months may be distributed over several years.
[Footnote 458-1]

Those conscripts who pass a certain examination and pay 1500 lire (in the cavalry 2000) are required to spend only one year with their regiments, and are further permitted, like the university students, to put off their year of service till they are twenty-six years of age.

The following table (XXVIII.) gives the general strength of the army at September 30 in nine successive years :—

== TABLE ==

By the law of 15th May 1877 the country is divided into ten army corps districts, the seats of which are Verona, Milan, Turin, Piacenza, Bologna, Florence, Rome, Naples, Bari, and Palermo. These are broken up into twenty military divisions, one half of which are centred in the cities just mentioned and the other half in Padua, Brescia, Genoa, Ancona, Perugia, Salerno, Chieti, Catanzaro, Messina. The military districts, which have an important share in the mobilization of the army, number eighty-eight.





The following table (XXIX.) indicates the strength of the various arms in October 1879 :—

== TABLE ==

The army cost the country between 1871 and 1875 the sum of 882,471,512 lire, or in round numbers £7,060,000 per annum, and the navy 171,188,531 lire, or £1,369,500 per annum. The following figures (Table XXX.) indicate the expenses, ordinary and extraordinary, since incurred (in millions of lire) :—

== TABLE ==

The annual cost of the Italian army is slight as compared with that incurred by other countries ; but compared with the resources of Italy it wears a totally different aspect.
For navy organization the coast regions are divided into three departments (Spezia, Naples, and Venice) and twenty-two conscription districts. About 16,000 or 18,000 men are enrolled yearly, and 18,000 have unlimited furlough. On January 1, 1880, the national fleet consisted of the following vessels (Table XXXI.) :—

== TABLE ==

The personnel of the fleet was thus composed :—Officers—1 admiral, 4 vice-admirals, 9 rear-admirals, 36 capitani di vas-cello, 42 capitani di fregata, 202 lieutenants, 150 sub-lieutenants, 49 officers of the naval engineers, 24 assistants, 78 officers of the mechanicians, 117 officers of the sanitary corps, 235 officers of the commissariat department, and 540 civil employes; Men—15,055, including 7878 sailors proper and 2162 gunners. The greatest of the naval establishments in the kingdom is that of Spezia, which was opened about 1876, instead of the similar establishment at Genoa. The arsenal in 1879 had an area measuring 3930 feet in length by 2450 in breadth. Two other arsenals are maintained at; Naples and Venice respectively. The workmen employed in the various establishments numbered 6292 in 1879.


Footnotes

458-1 For further information see ARMY (vol. ii. p. 612), and H. v. Löhelle, Jahres-berichte über die Veränderungen im Militärwesen.







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