PROBLEM OF DEFENCE

Evening Post, Volume CXII, Issue 55, 2 September 1926, Page 10

PROBLEM OF DEFENCE

ARMY STILL FIRST LINE • AMERICAN CHIEF OF STAFFJS VIEW. ' „ .',",',' (Australian-New Zealand 'Cable .'AssnO (Received 2nd Sept., 3 p.m.) - . ' WASHINGTON, Ist.,Sept. : Major-General Hines,. Chief of Staff of the U.S. Army, addressing the'opening exorcises of the Army War College,; declared that an adequate standing army of 150,000 could be organised into a modern defence establishment for America, but economic conditions would keep it considerably below that figure. He stated that the present authorisedstrength of the Regular Arm/was 117,500. Current appropriations'would be sufficient to maintain a larger' numericf.l. force, if the allied questions of supply and training were neglected^ lie said, l>ut men without weapons would only make a ■ useless sacrifice, and weapons without .trained men had no immediate military value. "We must never fail to recognise the fact that our :first line of defence, is the army, as it now stands," he said, "and that incase of emergency the nation must depend'on. the personnel of the organisations already- constituted to hold the,line of. resistance until great national, armies, can be mobilised, trained, and equip-, ped for battle."