24 OUR ENGLISH LAND MUDDLE. 



expert advisers insisted that the way to reform 

 was to increase largely the naval subsidy and 

 the voluntary militia. But the existing position 

 was that the small subsidy was paid grudgingly, 

 and the militia, though very expensive because 

 highly paid, could not be recruited to a safe 

 standard of strength. Other enthusiasts for 

 defence took into account political and senti- 

 mental considerations, and proposed an Aus- 

 tralian navy to co-operate with the Imperial 

 Navy, and a system of universal service to take 

 the place of the partially paid and voluntarily 

 recruited militia. It was objected that, strategi- 

 cally, an Australian navy was of inferior value to 

 the same strength of ships added to the British 

 Fleet ; and that universal service would give 

 a larger force of soldiers than was actually 

 necessary. But the position was that the pro- 

 posals which were perhaps a little inferior 

 strategically had an enormous superiority politic- 

 ally and sentimentally. They were adopted and 

 carried through with enthusiasm. Australia to- 

 day pays cheerfully ten times the old naval vote, 

 and is in the process of raising a force which 

 will amount to 200,000 trained men, whereas 



