87- 



REVIEW OF REVIEWS. 



S'jvcmher 1. 1913. 



zens as seems reasonabi}- required for 

 defence purposes, and to let the Govern- 

 ment from time to time fix this number 

 in accordance with the probable require- 

 ments and financial resources of the 

 Union." 



The South African Scheme differs 

 from ours in the fallowing fundamental 

 ways : — 



(1) It does not comijel service until the 

 citizen is 21. In populous ai'eas cadets be- 

 tween 13 and 17 may ho trained if their 

 parents consent. 



(2) It gives a citizen, between the ages of 

 17 and 21 the opportunity of voluntarily en- 

 tering himself for training. 



(3) Although all must register, only a cer- 

 tain proportion, selected by ballot, will be 

 required to train in the citizen force. 



(4) Those who do not carry out their full 

 peace training, that is, do not volunteer or 

 get selected by ballot, must be enrolled as 

 members of a rifle association, and for four 

 years undergo annually a prescribed course 

 of training in the care and use of the rifle, 

 and also pay £1 a year for 24 years as a 

 contribution towards military defence. 



(5) Exemptions are allowed for the fol- 

 lowing reasons : — 



(a) The interruption of a citizen's course 

 of eflucational studies. 



(b) The nature and extent of his domes- 

 tic obligations. 



(c) The conditions of his industrial pro- 

 fessional or business vocations. 



{d) His bona fide religious tenets. 



(c) The inaccessibility of training centres 

 from his place of residence. 



(/) Physical deformities or defects or 

 mental incapacity being so marked as 

 to preclude any necessity for the sub- 

 sequent medical examination pre- 

 scribed. 



Exemptions are granted b\' a board 

 selected from oificers commanding the 

 units allotted to that district, the magis- 

 trates, and such other prominent citizens 

 residing in that district as the Minister 

 of Defence may direct. The [Minister 

 appoints a magistrate to be president of 

 the Board. 



Lord Kitchener, in his recommenda- 

 tion, estimated that the land forces re- 

 quired to protect Australia were 80,000 

 fighting troops. In order to obtain this 

 total the Field }ilarshal reckoned that 

 15,900 eighteen-}-ear-old men should 

 start training in the citizen forces every 

 year. This allowed for a wastage of 

 5 per cent annually during the eight 

 years of training. The first quota of 

 men born in 1894 — numbering 16,900 — 



are now training in the citizen forces, 

 and the second quota — born in 1895 — 

 number 17,474 — fifteen hundred more 

 than required. The population of Aus- 

 tralia is increasing at the rate of 18 per 

 cent, per annum, so that each )^ear the 

 numbers coming in for training should 

 be larger. There should, consequently, 

 be room for considerable leniency, and 

 the South African scheme of exemptions 

 could be adopted without endangering 

 the 80,000 fighting men, which Lord 

 Kitchener deemed necessary to make 

 Australia secure. 



C.\X THE PEOPLE RE.ALLY CONTROL IT ?> 



A few of the points made in my last 

 article have been challenged, and as I 

 am anxious to give as accurate and fair 

 a criticism of the Act as possible, I 

 set them forth below. 



I pointed out that one of the chief 

 dangers of the present Act was that it 

 might imperceptibl}- lead to a great in- 

 crease of militarism. That, I am told, 

 is quite impossible. The people would 

 never stand it. The}' have the power to 

 alter the provisions of the Act, to pre- 

 vent any increase in hours of service, to 

 stop any additional powers being 

 granted to the military authorities. 

 Theoretically that is true, but is it in 

 practice? A small boy may start a 

 boulder down a gentle slope, but soon 

 even a Hercules could not stop it. 



The Inspector-General urges, in his 

 latest report, that the training period of 

 the Light Horse should be increased to 

 2^ days in all, of which at least 17 

 should be continuous. It is obvious that 

 this would greatl)- increase their effi- 

 cienc}', and from that point of view 

 would be admirable. Will the people 

 allow it? If so, will they later agree 

 to increased training for cadets, or the 

 citizen forces? I venture to think that 

 if all the military advisers of the Gov- 

 ernment urged such an increase, on the 

 perfectl}' legitimate ground of efficiency, 

 a majority of the people would never 

 sa>- them nay, and the minority would 

 be helpless to prevent it. The present 

 financial position shows how utterly 

 powerless the people are to control de- 

 tails. It also shows what a financial 

 vampire the army is becoming. 



