Chapter XXI: Appendix: A

No allusion has been made in the Introduction to the pay of officers, nor to the actual cost of the keep of troopers. Being unable to find any documents on which to base my calculations, I appealed to M. Urbain Gohier, the French writer whose authority on this subject is the greatest, and I append the reply which he very kindly sent me:

[_Translation._]
PARIS, _April 8, 1899_.

DEAR SIR,

Subjoined are the chief items of the budget for _pay_--which is
the same in all branches of the service so far as officers are
concerned.

As to the average cost of the soldier for maintenance, food,
&c., it is impossible to arrive at it.

Figures have been given from time to time, but they are purely
imaginary.

Expenses of all kinds are scattered under twenty different
headings in our budget, and the Reporter-General for that of
1899 has announced that nobody, either at the War Office or in
Parliament, can accurately dissect the expenditure.

The actual pay--of which I give you the amounts--is in
practice augmented by a mass of "indemnities," so-called, for
residence, travelling, mustering, lodging, high price of food,
office expenses, maintenance of dignity, first equipment, &c.,
varying with the nature of the employment, and the individuals
employed.

Some officers draw their bare pay, whilst others make a large
income, of which no official trace can anywhere be found.

Similarly, in the case of the men: the cost of provisions,
firing, lighting, sleeping accommodation, medical treatment
in or out of hospital, is reckoned in a lump sum, without
distinction between different branches of the service.

This extraordinary confusion is cunningly contrived to prevent
any control.

These are the items of pay: FRANCS.
Colonel 8564.21
Lieutenant-colonel 6934.74
Major and Chef d'Escadron 5797.90
Captain 3221.05
First-lieutenant 2842.11
Second-lieutenant 2652.63
Sub-lieutenant 2463.16
Adjutant 1022.00
Sergeant-major 511.00
Sergeant 401.50
Farrier 346.75
Corporal 200.75
Trumpeter 127.75
Trooper 109.50

(The N.C.O.s have 91.25 francs extra in the field.)

Note the exactitude of the above figures to a single centime,
and yet there may be in addition hundreds or even thousands of
francs handled in reality, either in money or in kind.

Always, &c.,
(_Signed_) URBAIN GOHIER.

I leave to M. Gohier the whole responsibility for these statements, as I am not in a position to test their correctness. I may add, however, that French officers, whatever their faults, have always seemed to me remarkably straightforward in money matters, and even M. Gohier--whom I cannot follow in his virulent attacks upon all officers indiscriminately--has never even hinted that any of them enrich themselves by dishonourable means.