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214
Iii. CONSTITUTION AND ADMINISTRATION OF SWEDEN.
military service, should provide and sustain the infantry regiments stationed in
the various provinces. The provinces were divided into equippers’ locations
(rotar), each of which had to provide and pay one soldier in time of peace as
well as of war. The cavalry obtained an organization based on similar principles,
in so far as the holders of crown land and others, against the benefit of certain
privileges, entered into the engagement of procuring and maintaining a man and
horse. — The tenement soldiers generally served for several decades. After having
received their training as recruits, these men were only called in for the annual
repetition drills. There still exists a rather considerable number of soldiers provided
by the military tenure, a number, however, which year by year is diminishing.
The following is an account of the Swedish army after the effects of
the new law of 1901 have been fully carried out. According to this
law the Swedish army is organized on the principle of universal
conscription and consists of the conscripts and the cadres of permanent
employs (enlisted).
A) The conscripts. Every Swedish man is bound to serve as a
soldier. There is no exemption whatever, nor is substitution allowed
only those incapable of military service are released. A conscript, who
has been permanently deprived of his civil rights because of having
committed certain grave crimes, is not allowed to be a member of the
army. If he has only lost those privileges temporarily, he is not allowed
meanwhile to take part in military drilling, but is to be employed in
suitable labour in the army.
Military service lasts from the calendar year in which the conscript
will be 21 till the year (inclusive) in which he attains the age of 40.
The time of service is thus 20 years, as a rule divided as follows: 8
years in the First levy, 4 years in the Second, and 8 years in the
Reserves (Landstormen). Every man who has had constant employment
(enlistment) in the army for a total period of two years belongs, after
quitting the said service, to the first levy until the year when he enters
the reserve (in his 33rd year) and performs his drills by way of
repetition with conscripts belonging to his own year.
He who has, for at least two years, been a student of a University
or at one of the high schools likewise belongs to the first levy until
he enters the reserve.
The kingdom is divided into 26 regimental enrolment districts; every infantry
regiment usually corresponds to such a district; the island of Gotland constitutes
an enrolment district of its own. Every regimental enrolment district is subdivided
into 3, sometimes, though rarely, into 2 or 4 sub-districts; Gotland’s enrolment
district has 8 sub-districts. There are altogether 82 sub-districts. Moreover, for
the Navy there is an independent enrolment organization with 6 marine districts,
each including 3 — 12 »Naval register offices». The chief of the corresponding
infantry regiment, as a rule, serves as commanding officer to the enrolment
district. The command of a sub-district is undertaken by an Army Reserve-officer,
who is assisted by one or several non-commissioned officers from the Reserve.
For every sub-district or »Naval register office» there is a committee of
enrolment with a field-officer as chairman, together with four members, viz.,
a lawyer appointed by the civil authorities, the chief of the sub-district, and
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