AUSTRALIAN ARMY.

Taranaki Daily News, 16 October 1920, Page 9 (Supplement)

AUSTRALIAN ARMY.

not trusting to luck. MR. HUGHES'S STATEMENT. A preliminary statement regarding Australia's Defence polity was made by Mr. W. M. Hughes, Prime Minister, in the Federal House of Representatives, oil 9th September. Experience of ages, said Mr. Hughes, proved very clearly that only by effective preparation for national, defence could integrity and freedom of a nation be maintained, lie disapproved of the idea that Australia could rely solely on the British Navy and League of Nations. There were four heads which had to !-e kept in view in a defence policy: The general international situation. The League of Nations. Our position in the British Empire. The special conditions and geographical situation of Australia, ineluding- the maintenance of a White Australia, The war was over, but peace had not been secured. There were to-day few assurances of permanent peace. The whole world was disturbed by propaganda which menaced the peace, and threatened the integrity of nations. .No prudent people could 'to-day allow its insurance {ioliey to lapse and trust to luck. As a security against invasion, the League of Nations represented a noble ideal, and its acceptance by the greater part of the world was the only hope of enduring peace. On its development rested the security of civilisation. The League was yet, however, in its infancy, though it was the most hopeful machinery ever designed by man for the appeal to reason instead of to force. Jet its success depended on the growth of the peace spirit. POLAND OWES FREEDOM TO HER OWN VALOUR. ; "We should be in a Paradise of Fools [ if we did not recognise that the will to war existed in mankind as strong as it ever was. Poland to-day owed her freedom, not to the League of Nat}; but to her own valour. If that ftp,"" Poland, so near to the League tions, bow much more did it apply to Uj-S willi our peculiar geographical situation : There were certain things, such as the freedom of the seas, the Monroe, doctrine, and the White Australia, which could not be submitted to any' League. ADVANCfi GUARD OF THE WHITE . RACE. - "A White Australia was the most vital of our interests. It might be the source of the most fruitful of complications. To support that principle we must be ready to defend ourselves. We would not defend it by any pious or blatant declaration. There were the obligations also upon 11s of our position as part of the British Empire. The League of Nations, of which we were an equal partner, guaranteed us, if we were protected. It had 110 international force behind it, but the duty was upon each nation to contribute its quota, so that it should be able to enforce by common acton international obligations. ''Even like every other oart of the Empire, we must do our share for the preservation ol the Empire." lie pointed to the comparative proximity of Australia to Asiatic countries, and remarked that Australia was the advanced guard of the protectors of the white races. Australia was in an ocean which occupied one-third of the world's space. We had taken over the control of considerable new territories. Australia had now to take account, of her dangers and her opportunities and her isolation. Obviously, the iiational safety of Australia required that, she should take a serious share in the naval responsibilities of the Empire. We were within reach of attack and invasion by hostile air craft, and we must have means of meeting an uir attack. DEFINITE OBLIGATIONS. "We have," he continued, "definite responsibilities and obligations to share in our own defence and that of the Empire. At tiie same time we have to recognise the limitations which are imposed on our capacity by the smallness of our population, by the heavy burden which the war has imposed on lis, and by the fact that we are a peace-loving community, to whom the maintenance of a large standing army and a great navy is distasteful. "There remains also one other factor which must not lie overlooked. I mean the quota and the sphere of operations under a scheme of Imperial defence which, it is expected, will be formulated as a result of deliberations between representatives of the United Kingdom and the oversea Dominions in the near future. This has yet to he determined. "The proposals of both must therefore be regarded as tentative. Subject to what 1 have said, the proposals put forward by the Government may now be set out in broad outline. EFFECTIVE ARMY ESSENTIAL. There are three essentials to ail effective army:--(]) an effective and highly - trained stall; (2) a sufficient supply of munitions and equipment and training. " i king these in tile order in which I here set out, the war lias shown to us that the prime essentials of military defence are: 1. An efficient and highly-trained stall' not merely of permanent, but of citizen, officers. It has been generally admitted bv the General Stall's of the Allied armies that the stall' work and organisation of the Australian forces would compare favourably with that of any army. 2. An effective supply of munitions and equipment. We have received certain equipment for the live infantry and two Eight Horse divisions, which we had in the Held: but we are- deficient in heavy artillery and ammunition, to a lesser degree in material for the light guns. As without an effective equipment no army, no matter how efficient its staff, nor how numerous and highly-trained and courageous it is, can take the field with any hope of success, the Government is placing proposals on the Estimates for a commencement to be made to remedy our deficiencies in this respect. ". Training. We have in Australia in the A.I.E. a high-trained personnel which, in the immediate years could, if necessity arose, be organised and placed in the lield for the defence of Australia, and the Government proposes to invite the co-operalion of the members of the A.I.F. to ionn the basis upon which the future armies of Australia shall be trained. Mr. Hughes, concluding, sr. • n< had given only a. general outline of '!.■ (!overnment's defence policy. lie said again they could not be charged wilh extravagance in regard to it. How far they were justified in cutting down naval expenditure was a matter for the House to pronounce an opinion upon at its leisure. He asked members, however, not to pass the matter over lightly, and t.o venjember the lessons of the late war