Leading Articles in the Reviews. 



455 



UNIVERSAL TRAINING IN 

 AUSTRALIA. 



The Journal of the Royal United Service 

 Institution publishes, in the shape of a series of 

 notes of lectures delivered at the Special Camp 

 of Instruction, Albury, the complete scheme of 

 Australian national defence. 



In introducing the lectures the Minister for 

 Defence, Senator G. F. Pearce, said : — 



Australia, all will admit, is a country worth having. 

 Yet it is the only conlinenl owned by one people, and 

 has never been stained by bloodshed in war. . . . 

 Australians are a. peaceful business people who do not 

 want war; but can we get others to think the same.' 

 There are nations not decadent who have defeated somt 

 of the so-called Great Powers of the world. History 

 teaches that every country that becomes a conqueror 

 grows land-hungry and ambitious, and so Australia must 

 prepare. . . . Having decided this, we must have 

 the best system of defence, the best training it is possible 

 to get. Our army of defence must not be simply the 

 aggregation of an armed mob, but men 6t to stand up 

 against any troops that may come along. As regards the 

 cost of the scheme, this system of national insurance is 

 but a mere bagatelle compared with the loss that would 

 be caused by an aggressive cruiser coming to these shores. 

 And, further, the horrors of war cannot be counted in 

 pounds, shillings, and pence. If we are going to have a 

 defence scheme worth having, we must have the best, 

 and be prepared to pay for it. 



The average cost per annum per adult soldier 

 in training in organised units, under Senator 

 Pearce's proposals, now being carried out, is 

 £17. The note on the proposed organisation 

 states : — 



The population of Australia in roii is about 4^ 

 millions, of whom there are, on the basis of the last 

 census, 



188,000 males of 14 years and under 18 years, and 

 295,000 males of 18 years and under 1$ years. 



Many of these will be found in districts too thinly i>opu- 

 lated to admit of training without excessive expenditure, 

 or living at loo great a distance from the several training 

 places. A large number also will be found medically 

 unfit for training. 



Upon the hgures at present available, it is estimated 

 that we shall have in training, when the scheme is in 

 full operation, 



100,000 Senior Cadets, and 

 ■ ■2,000 Citizen Soldiers. 



An army ii organiied by considering the numbers avail- 

 able, the length of service laid down by law, and the 

 proportion of the various arms required. 



The propo.sed organisation for .Australia, varying only 

 a little from that of Ix>rd Kitchener, as found necessary 

 on closer examination of the numbers available, includes 



0.5 llatlalions of Infantry, 



28 Kcgimenis of Light Horse, 



56 Uatleriei of Field Artillery, 



and a due proportion of Kngineers, Army Service Corps, 

 Army Medical Corps, troops for forts, and other ser 

 vicei. 



lly far the largest part of any army is Infantry, and 

 the territorial organisation of Australia is there forr 

 based upon ibe Infantry units. 



"THE DOGS OF WAR." 



In the London for October, under the above 

 title, Fred T. Jane commences a series of 

 articles which are to tell the plain truth about 

 our Navy. TTie one before us, " In Sight of 

 Mutiny," is sp>ecially disquieting. Speaking of 

 the Spithead gathering in July, he says : — 



Spread out, the ships might have reached the moon. 

 A bit more spread out — to Mars. But when the great 

 fleet weighed anchor, in every ship there was at least 

 one man — in many ships more than one — who wondered 

 whether when the order came the fleet would refuse 

 duty, and what would happen then? 



Mr. Jane reiterates with all the force of his 

 long and first-hand study of the subject the 

 urgent need to maintain the " two keels to one " 

 standard. Whatever else may or may not 

 happen, whatever may or may not be, there is 

 one great fact of modern naval warfare, and 

 that is that there can be no " muddling 

 through." Modern naval warfare is too deadly. 

 Disaster cannot be retrieved. It is a physical 

 impossibility to construct a warship inside a 

 certain period. There is a definite limit to the 

 number of men who can be put to work on her. 

 More important still, however, is the fact that 

 nothing on earth can accelerate the time that a 

 gun or an armour-plate, to be efficient, takes to 

 cool. The utmost that can be done is to speed 

 up the men who put things together, and that is 

 the most trivial item of the whole job. The 

 human element hardly enters. The crux of the 

 matter is a chemical one. The next great war 

 will presumably only last well inside a year. 

 The utmost acceleration which human ingenuity 

 can accomplish in producing warships is pro- 

 bably at the outside a i per cent, advance at the 

 best. The laws of physics arc beyond the 

 wildest efforts of human desire. We can only 

 make war with what we have in hand. The 

 question for the man in the street is not the 

 statistical arithmetic of a problem of which he 

 cannot possibly grasp the full technicalities; it 

 is the far simpler question of whether he will 

 slake his existence on the views of those who 

 demonstrate that a modicum will suffice, or on 

 those who demand a fuller suHicicncy. His 

 existence is the stake. There is no place in war 

 for " also ran. " 



It may interest our readers to know that, 

 like the C.ininc Dcfciirc I,cai,'iic, the Animals' 

 Hospital, Knightsbridgc, continues its humane 

 work for sick anrl stray animals. Motor ambu- 

 lances arc now being used, and arc av.iilablc 

 at any time free of charge to those unable to 

 I)ay, not only for the Ir.insit, but ftjr the treat- 

 ment of their animals. 



