tion for which he is best suited. The seamen are to be enrolled in
the navy; for the torpedo-defence, fishermen living close by are
employed, artisans as far as possible in their own department, the
mounted arms are recruited from the larger agricultural districts,
all students of medicine serve in the sanitary corps, the training
for officers is based upon that of the higher schools, and so forth.
The obligation to serve holds good from the age of 18 to 50.
The men are not enrolled, however, until the year in which
they complete their 22nd year, thus later than in most countries,
and they are on the army list for 16 years. The army is organised
in 3 independent successive bans, «opbud». The men serve first in
the line for 6 years, then in the landvern for 6 years, and then
for 4 years in the landstorm. The remainder of the age-classes
are in the unorganised landstorm reinforcements. The three opbuds
have the same number of parallel battalions, squadrons, etc., and
the line and landvern have the necessary army reserves within their
own age-classes. The line only, according to the fundamental law,
can be employed outside the country.
This arrangement, peculiar to Norway, of the three successive
opbuds of equal strength has been brought about by the position of
the country as an independent member in a union. If, in defence
of the united kingdoms, the line is operating in Sweden, it will
be necessary to have a field army of considerable strength to protect
Norway from a special attack, namely, the landvern. By. consistently
carrying out the territorial system, the third opbud also
acquire^ the same conformation: the landstorm, which here, as
elsewhere, is mainly intended for local defence, but also to cover
the concentration of the troops belonging to the line and the
landvern by instantly occupying prepared-points by a sudden
mobilisation.
When the organisation is completed by all the opbuds attaining
their year-classes (1902), both line and landvern troops will
be able to have the cadres for their depot or reserve troops
established by the landstorm, chiefly by superannuated officers and
the school-eompanies. For the present the landvern cadres must
to some extent establish the depots.
The military training of conscripts is carried on in accordance
with the militia system, not by a long barrack service, but by
exercise in camps out in the districts, repeated for a number of
summers. In the first year, a course of drill is gone through,
which, in the case of infantry, at present lasts for 48 days, for
special arms, 60—90 days. After drill come the battalion exercises,
lasting 24 days. These exercises are then continued for the two
— for special arms, three -S following years in the line, 24 days
every year, and lastly in the 7th year ||f the first in the landvern
lp ||f or 24 days. The total time of trainihg is thus nearly
5 months for infantry, distributed over 4 years (from the conscripts’
23th to their 29th), nearly 7 months for cavalry and field-artillery,
and nearly 6 months for engineers, distributed over 5 years. This
is, of course, considerably less than the 2 to 4 years’ uninterrupted
service of the standing armies; but, in comparing the two cases,
consideration must be taken on the one hand to the good soldier-
material, tall, well-developed men with a good education, and, on
the other, to the fact that the exercises during the short repetitions
can be carried on with greater vigour, and be more easily
given a campaign character than can generally be done in garrison
towns. Larger field-duty exercises, in which about 1/i of the line
and landvern corps take part at a time, will be held, as a rule,
every other year, lasting for one week.
Of enlisted troops in addition to the garrisons in the fortresses,
there is only H. M. Norwegian Guard, 2 companies, garrisoning
Kristiania, but they are all, properly speaking, training corps for
non-commissioned officers.
The non-comprrissioned officers are either regularly appointed, or
serve as «vemepligtige» (conscripted). They have all enlisted for
the purpose of going through a complete non-commissioned officer's
training, with a theoretical and practical course, lasting 3 years
for infantry and cavalry, 4 years for artillery and engineers. Only
a small proportion of the pupils examined receive permanent
appointments, and those as sergeants. Most of them become «conscripted
non-commissioned officers», serving during the yearly exercises
together with the privates in their own age-classes, in the
line and landvern regularly as corporals, in the landstorm in
higher grades as well.
The abundant supply of volunteers to these long, strict courses,
which renders this arrangement with conscripted non-commissioned
officers possible, may appear remarkable, especially in a land with
such short compulsory service. The explanation is to be found
chiefly in the fact that these sub-officers’ , schools are regarded as
a sound training for young men in practical life as well, as a «part