[42] Estimates that were transmitted confidentially to this country by observers in Europe and are now before the writer are that the European Nations had raised their aeroplane efficiency to the following magnitude: France 1,400, Germany 1,000, Russia 800, Italy 600, England 400 (probably greatly increased since then), Austria 400, Spain 100, Belgium (in the beginning) 100, Switzerland 20 and Servia 60 aeroplanes. The United States has at present 12 army aeroplanes, 13 naval planes, no dirigibles, 2 aeroplanes old model, total effective 23. The first aero squadron of the army has just been formed at the Signal Corps Aviation School, San Diego, Cal. It will contain twenty officers and ninety-six enlisted men. The last House of Congress refused to consent to the Senate’s appropriation of $400,000 for military aviation, and the amount available this year was cut down to $300,000. The Navy Department is making specifications for a small dirigible, and on February 27 opened bids for the construction of six hydro-aeroplanes, bi-plane sea-going type, armored, to carry two men, wireless, guns and ammunition at speeds of from fifty to eighty miles an hour. [43] Strength of Massachusetts Volunteer Militia, 1914, as per returns of inspecting officers, 5,369 men, 424 officers. [44] Only eleven States had on hand at the time of the last annual inspection one complete uniform (less shoes) for each enlisted man of the authorized minimum strength.... “In the opinion of the Division of Militia Affairs the States could have by this time, by proper economy and care in the use of property and the expenditure of funds, acquired stores sufficient to equip the militia at war strength.... The militia is not now equipped with supplies sufficient for peace strength.... In no State is the prescribed minimum peace strength maintained.”--Pages 206, 283 and 287, Organization and Federal Property, Annual Reports, War Department, June 13, 1913 to October 1, 1914. [45] “We are still without an adequate reserve system either of officers or men.”--Leonard Wood, Major General, Chief of Staff, U. S. A., official report, January 20, 1914. [46] So stated in instructions issued to foreign armies for the event of disembarkation. [47] Landing barges of this capacity are possessed by at least three Powers and have been tested in maneuvers. [48] All these details, and many more, are systematically worked out in European army instructions, both confidential and public. [49] Under average conditions it is possible to land 25,000 infantry, 1,000 cavalry and 60 guns in six hours.... In the Crimean War 45,000 men, 83 guns and 100 horses were disembarked and set on shore in less than eleven hours, without modern appliances.--“Over-Seas Operations.” See also British and French records. [50] This quotation is a literal quotation from the War Department report on “The Organization of the Land Forces of the United States,” August 10, 1912.