The Daily News SATURDAY, OCTOBER 2. AUSTRALIA'S NEW MILITARY SCHEME.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LII, Issue 204, 2 October 1909, Page 2

The Daily News SATURDAY, OCTOBER 2. AUSTRALIA'S NEW MILITARY SCHEME.

Particulars to hand by the mail show that the Defence Bill recently introduced into the Federal House of Repu 1 - sentatives makes for a complete refonn m Australia's military system and opens a new chapter in her history. The scheme does not go so far as the Swiss system; it appears to be a compromise iqetwcen the latter and the present volunteer system, it is. however, capible of considerable extension. It is a base that can be built upon as expedience show* to be necessary. Australia.

of course, is not Switzerland, ft is a widely - scattered and thinly - peopled country, and this fact stands in the way of inaugurating a complete system of compulsory training after the Swis-s model. This difficulty is evidently recognised by the Federal Government, for >t proposes limiting the application oi the compulsory clauses of the Bill to the centres of population, or the districts within five miles of cities, which contain about 00 per cent, of the total nopulation of Australia. A start ie to *)e nuide with schoolboys when they av

»ive at tin age of twelve years. They

rill be trained for 120 hours annually mi miniature rifle shooting and physical qrill. Two years afterwards they will be drafted into, the "senior cadets," thev will remain for four years, undergoing elementary military training mid range shooting for a period rqual-

Img sixteen days annually. For the next two years they will be organised and irJned in the various arms in complete lighting units, serving the equivalent or' sixteen lays annually, being paid •ai tli ran- of 3s per day in their nineteenth year for detached drills, and 4s in the twentieth. After this, enlistment is voluntary, except in war, when training is compulsory. All .the trained men, however, have to register once a year or attend a muster-parade. They will be organised in arms and units. The jille clubs will be organised under pre sent conditions as the last elass, and trained in improved musketry. The existing volunteers will be units of ino militia.

Liability to serve in the" reserve extends from the soldier's twenty-first year until the twenty-sixth. They will i)e organised in definite units of the arms to which they have been trained, with reserve officers and N.C.O.'s, and the

iarins and equipment used by them will be retained ill the mobilisation stores for issue to them in time of war. The ( Millie will apply to men under twentyI six years, on completion of service in liie militia. Subject to the necessary precautions for their safe custody, rifles may lie left in the possession of those who desire to keep lip their rille pracV Vice. The only service required of those I in the reserve will be an annual registration of their address or attendance at a muster-parade, in order to ensure Inm the prescribed organisation is actually m practical operation. Such musterparades would be held in the districts of the men concerned, and woiil.l create no enforced absence from their ordinary employment. .Members of the rille clubs, if under twenty-six y. ar<. would, of course, lie allotted to the reserves described in tlie last paragraph. Tlio;e over twenty-six years would also be allotted to definite organisations, and each man would have his place in the defence forces. It is proposed to inake such changes in the regulations of tile rille clubs as to ensure that their members shall he of practical use in the scheme of Australian defence. It is estimated that when the scheme has been in operation for eight years there will be an effective force of 206,000 men. Summed up, the advantages ol the organisation and training under the scheme are as follow:—(1) It provides striking force —field force and garrison troops—immediately ready for war; (2) It provides a reinforcement to the field force of the second line, i.e.. second line of field force, which could be mobilised in equal numbers in from one to two weeks later; (3) Both will have the full complement of officers and X.C.O.'s; (4) Both will be equipped for war; (,">)' llalf of the first line will have had six years' training, including the training 0 f the senior cadets, the other half over five years, and the second line

over four years. The bulk of the officers and sergeants will be over seven years' service; (G) Tile training of the first line will be at war establishments, and productive of much greater efficiency; (7) Those who have passed through their training, and the members of the jille clubs, will be organised in definite units as reserves for war, and arms and equipment provided for them; (8) Tile enrolment of men at regular periods will enable the training to be uniform and progressive, and not hampered by the continual changes of personnel so detrimental to efficiency under a system of voluntary enlistment and rcsignation,

I In introducing the scheme, Mr. Joseph Cook (Minister for Defence) said;— "Under the scheme there will be an exI peditionary force ready to send away at a moment's notice. The scheme Is capable of large extensions. It will mean an organised whole. We can ori'y deal with GO per cent, of the men. AVe I mean to start in towns or districts within five miles of cities and town*. We hope to draw tile infnnfrv from the country districts. It is fair ihat those who in camp shall be paid. We make everyone, rich or poor, do his duty to complete the equipment for war purposes. We will not have transpoit, but we are following the good example of Great Britain. We propose to register vehicles of private individuals, and if necessary take them for the use

of the army. At next camp we will put a scheme into operation to see if it caif Jie applied with good results. A record of young men, who have been trained, will be kept, so that the Go-

procured. Tliev will have to register vernment may know where they can be once a year. We may require them to turn out once a yca'r to show themselves, and show tiiejr rifie. That will lie imposed on young men over 20 years of age. The musketry training of riflemen must be improved. With regard lo penalties, if those in the Bill are too drastic ihe Government will review it. If a boy does not <lo his first year'? drill, he must do it in the second. If he does not do it then, he must do il 111 the third or fourth. He must doiiis four years even if he is arrested "and compelled to do it in barracks. 'We hope to start in July, 1911. To maintain efficiency there would have to w a general staff. If the staff were efficient the army,-would be efficient. 1 am glad to say .we have started wit'.i a general staff scheme. Colonel .Bridges was the representative of the Commonwealth in Great Britain. He was at present in Germany at the manoeuvres. When Lord Kitchener arrives his opinion will be most valued, and will be followed."

Referring to the cost, Mr. Cook said the expenditure on the armies of the world had gone up considerably. The amount of the war bill would increase 100 per cent, within a few years. He expected to see it reach 2%' millions before long. That would be only 10s per head. They would get for this a navv that would fight well on tire sea and an army that would fight well on the land. They intended to builil up the army, having in view the fact that they would have at some time to meet trained armies of the world. Their object was a worthy and adequate contribution of the main fabric of Empire, which was the main guarantee of peace throughout the world,

' There can he little doubt that the Commonwealth is setting out on the proper lines. In these days peace can only be assured by preparing for war, and the colonics will not be preserved inviolate unless their citizens are ready to do their duty by direct personal service—which is 1 he reason for. and the explanation of, compulsion—and unless they are willing to provide the money for the necessary equipment. In the Australian scheme it is proposed to obtain all the necessary machinery for ap army ready to move at a moment's notice. Australia is not to find herSßif blocked in some shpreme crisis because the details of mobilisation have not been thought out and settled. Apart from the military aspect, however, the trailing the youths of th? country will receive will do an incalculable amount

of good.' There is no shirking the fae that the worst quality of the youn; colonial is his lack of discipline find re straiut. As a general rule he is amen able to neither. He prefers to act "01 his own" j to do that whicF be si euit hun, without regard to the desires o feelings of anyone else. Probably hi environment accounts for the fault Compared with the older countries, 11' in the colonies is free and easy an< not looked upon with any degree o seriousness by the younger element who prefer to pursue the line of leas resistance, which they find in games spurting, ' etc. Compulsory militar; training will knock discipline and re atnum into them, and if it does no< thing else its inauguration would bt amply justified. We hope this Dominion will take a leaf out of Australia's book and waste no further time in tinkering with the question hut deal with it during the coming session 011 the Broad and practicable lines that the Commonwealth i* doing.