"We must defend our neutrality," the President said, "our 600 years of
freedom. There is not a single man in the country who thinks
differently. I am an Italian-Swiss, one of the least numerous of our
nationalities, but there is only one voice here as elsewhere--only one
voice from Ticino to Geneva. That we shall defend our neutrality is
proved by the great expenditure on our army; otherwise, it would be the
height of folly."
The President spoke of army expenditure, of the simple army system, of
the reorganization which had been carried out some years before.
Switzerland was spending L20,000 a day, a large sum for a small country.
Since the day when the general mobilization had been decreed--some
classes have now been liberated--Switzerland had spent L4,500,000. It
was a lot of money.
The army, of course, was a militia; some few officers were professional
soldiers, others were drawn from a civil career and were doctors,
lawyers, engineers, and merchants. In 1907 the country had consented to
lengthen the periods of training in what are quaintly called the
"recruits' schools" and "rehearsal schools." In the former category the
men do sixty-five days' training a year, in the latter forty-five.
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