UNITED STATES DEFENCES.

Wairarapa Age, Volume XXXI, Issue 9062, 10 April 1908, Page 5

UNITED STATES DEFENCES.

\ INCREASE IN ARMY VOTE. Received April 9, 8.59 a.m. ! NEW YORK, April 8. The American Senate has adopted ; the Army Bill, involving ah increase of twenty ir)illio::s dollars; also a Fortifications Bill providing for an expenditure of twelve million dollars. In the event o" war the United States could put into the field f om 50,000 to 75,000 regular troops, and , perhaps 80,000 of imperfectly trained and disciplined National Guard. The. United States is the only Power of any importance, except Great Britain, which relies on a purely voluntary army. Judging by the American papers the Department is (or was) having great difficulty in keeping the army up to the minimum strength, and an officer of high rank recently declared that conscription would have to be adopted sooner or later. Reports show that the Army is now 33 per cent, below its full authorised strength, and the problem of keeping it up even to its present numerical standard is becoming acute. Congress passed a law last year authorising the addition of 5,000 men to the Coast Artillery; "but not only have the official-! of the Arhiy failed to get these extra 5,000 men," says a statement issued from the headquarters of the Artillery Corps, "but they have lost 2,000 of the men they had before." Accurding to this statement, the difficulty of getting officers is practically as great. "For the first time in the history of the Army, vacancies in the grade of second lieutenant are going begging." The soldiers, says the same statement, "are quitting like rats leaving a leaky ship"— either by deserting or by purchasing their discharge. The chief causes of thfese conditions it is generally agreed, are the general prosperity of the country, the higher wages within the reach of the civilian, and the general scarcity of labour. This, of course, was written before the pre- 1 sent slump in the labour market.