Australia's Defence

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LVII, Issue 2, 21 May 1914, Page 5

Australia's Defence

REPORT BY GENERAL HAMILTON. ORGANISATION NEEDS AMENDMENT. PRACTICALLY READY FOR WAR. By Cable—Press Association—Copyright Received 20, .9.15 p.m. Sydney, May 20. General Sir Ia» Hamilton's report on the military forces of the Commonwealth are published. ■ fie lays dowa that the actual strength ol the State consists in the aggregate striking power of its armies and fleets, whieh should be as inter-dependent as the forefinger and the thumb. He declares that in a militia army there is *o room for a peace system divorced from war requirements, therefore during peace the services/ should be organised wader war conditions. After remarking that Australia's attention so far has been necessarily concentrated on training, now the time was almost ripe for consolidating the existing forces,into a carefully planned instrument of war. He condemns the centralisation of the Defence Department at Melbourne, adding: "Actually, the Australian system as it exists today, purely the product of peace procedure, could not hope to carry on beyond the first few weeks of war." He advocates file separation of the busdne® administration from the purely military, and concludes: "The whole of the regulars and three-fourths of the militia ire sufficiently trained to take part in a modern battle, supposing that such an occasion arose the .day after to-morrow, and with two weeks' warning the remaining fourth of the militia, piius some twenty thousand men of the flower of the, rifle clubs, would be available as reinforcements." *

General Hamilton adds: "I mean that a larg« proportion of the forces have a willing spirit and actual technical skill that would enable one man to handle them in action. "How would they fare on tie battlefield! Giving due weight to the moral factor that they are fighting for a country weJl worth defending, 1 and whereof t&ey bar# local knowledge, they would need to be w a majority of at least two to one t» fignt a pitched battle with picked traope from overseas on equal terms." ' The comparative la'ck of discipline and cohesion showing up strongly where large forces are involved is his reason for allowiag so large a margin of superiority t* the invading forces.