AUSTRALIAN FORCES.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume XLVI, Issue 153, 2 July 1904, Page 2

AUSTRALIAN FORCES.

| A PESSIMISTIC REPORT. | SYDNEY, July I.!' Tho annual report o( General 3if 13. Hutton (Federal Commandant) i 4 a moat pessimistic document. He A finding by hard experience that It 'l* no onsy thing to build up a defaj, , forco in faco of the wholesale pwJly lent retrenchment. He says it man l"> as well to stato at once that forco of requisite orgntks*fl and of taking the field, dottfl not at present exist in AustmujH Thoro aru at present no local mwn| of equipping such a forco ; the ganisation is incomplete, and th*l departments necessary for mobitipa- ] lion liavo yet to lw created. Thgra 1 aro neither sufllcient guns, ariiun equipment, nor ammunition avainl able, and tho most that could bo.lx.fl pec ted from the military situations at present existing would be concen-B tration ot a certain number of are* I ■xi men, who, without adequate ad- ■ mimistra'tion departments, or the re-1 quired equipment, would be qu|t« incapable of coping witK even an inferior number of invaders' troop* carefully trained, organised and ' equipped with tho latest modom appliances, as they unquestionably would be. It is impossible to view tho .Military situation in Australia, in face of the momentous ctamgw taking place in tha balance of POWM in the East without grave miaglv* lugs. Tho victories of tho Jap&noft arms within tho last four mouth* - have astounded the wholo civilised world by their brilliancy and by their astonishing rapidity of mow»> imnt. Tho future and fw-reactlßjj result of the war would have yet to lie fc-lt, and it 1b certain that t)tt commercial supremacy of the Pad/fc will lx> the aim and ambition of tha leading naval and military powers of the world, and that Australian hp. terests must therefore bo sorlov'jy compromised, if not Imporllled./ less wo aro efficiently secured raw ■■ sonablo measures ot militoVy dofencs.