SOUTH AFRICA.

Dominion, Volume 5, Issue 1301, 2 December 1911, Page 7

SOUTH AFRICA.

0DEFENCE BILL SWISS SYSTEM ADOPTED. COLOURED RACES EXCLUDED. By Telegraph—Press Association—lOopj1Oopj rich! (Rec. Decembor 1, 9-i p.m.) Caps Town, December 1. The'Defonco Bill prepared by the Union Government is modelled on tho Swiss system, and will entail a cost of -C 300.000, in addition to tho present cost of defence and police. Tho first lino consists of two thousand five hundred permanent mounted rifles, twenty-five thousand active citizen force, aged seventeen to twenty-iive; second lino consists of citizons -aged twonty-ono to forty-five who havo beon trained or have learned the uso of tho riflo; the third line the national reserve, aged seventeen to sixty,• who will be tailed out in case of grave emergencies. Only citizens reasonably required for defence are to be trained. Training consists of as many night drills as may bo required for recruits for the ranks, plus eight to fifteen days' continuous training annually, the remainder of the citizens to have rifle association training, in addition to paying a pound yearly for twenty-four years. It is proposed to establish an elaborate military college. _ The coloured inhabitants aro not included in the scheme. A ballot is to be arranged if the citizen forco proves inadequate.