THE AUSTRALIAN ARMY.

Dominion, Volume 7, Issue 1922, 3 December 1913, Page 9

THE AUSTRALIAN ARMY.

: LAST OF THR OLD MILITIA". Training camps throughout the Commonwealth and tho great j-cviow iu Melbourne last Saturday (November IS) must bring vividly before the pybLio mind the. tact that tho old militia-man if, rapidly disappearing, says a writer in the "Ago" Tho faces in the ranks are all of. young men.. As an actual fact, the militiaman is dropping from tho<young Australian army at'll'io rata of sonic 'hundreds each month. By July, 1015, he will bo found only in an isolated jiosition or'two, iu technical milts or as a particularly zealons noncommissioned officer. 'Use soldier _ under the old militia service was enlisted for two years, and he was required to rc-cnlist' after that period had been served- Thousands had thus fW.no on for twenty years, Whfiii tho universal service system ..was adopted, except in tho case of Tiomconimissianed officers and '■officers, the rc-enlistnwnts were stopped. At tho end of two years the. <oti soldier had.to leave the ranks to make way for the youth of the nation coming forward from tho senior cadets at the rate of 10,001) each year. From an army of some 50,000 officers and men who served under the old volunteer system t'hero 'were on September 80 last only 11.110 imrecoraniissioned olficers and men and 20M officers left. Thoseare tho soldiers, tho trained soldiers, ■who at present form the "siiffoujtoil"'' for the battalions at' reviews, in camp, on field clays. They are tho guides oil Mg parades, thc.v are the initiators of the IS-ycar-okl trained.at the camps. They are the- "old soldiers" in tho field. Amongst them was an esprit do corps, and to-day it is these. «k?h—Jlwiiy of whom have seen service abroad—who are doing much to infuse into the young national guard a spirit which led these, thousands to volunteer year after year. At Gisboroe, ■ at tho 17th Infantry Brigade camp, there aro only the merest sprinkling of those volunteers. Next, year there will be only a few noU'eoinmissioned officers who have had mora than three years' trainiiia-. But . tlireo years, from present indications, is going to .make smart, if still only partly trained-, soldiers of tho universal service men. While tho army will sain 1.0,000 next rear, it will lose'nearly 10.000 excellent soldiers.. A groat proportion of tho i!OU officers wilt remain, as leaders are ■scarce, and the force to ho trained id growing so fast that tho authorities aro almost at their wit's end to cope with tho great automatic system that is pom'' ing raw, eager lad's into tho ranks to As fast as possible, as so far as money can ho spared, sergeant-ma-jors aro "being obtained locally and f wim India and England to supervise the drilling of tho senior cadets and militia. Fifty arrived this year. There will ho 103 new instructors before nest Juno, besides as many efficient officers as tho Department can obtain. Tho headquarter staffs in each Stale are taxed ,to tho full, am! officers, are working day and night iu many instances to carry out the ever-increasing burden of duties.