PRESIDENTIAL ADDRESS. 11 



scheme should be planned and carried out were submitted 

 for the consideration of the Repatriation Commission and 

 the Minister in charge of the Department. 



Regulations to govern the working of a system of train- 

 ing, framed mostly on the recommendations of the confer- 

 ences, were soon after put into force. The necessary 

 arrangements were made for the giving of the training 

 mainly through an agreement with the Education Depart- 

 ments in all the States of the Commonwealth. The 

 regulations allowed, as far as was possible, for meeting 

 the requirements of the very complex system of industrial 

 laws in force in the different States, and provided com- 

 prehensively and very generously that every soldier eligible 

 should get a good training so as to enable him to become 

 expert in the calling selected. 



In the early days of the Repatriation Department, when 

 the conferences referred to were held, and when regula- 

 tions were framed, the idea of training was confined entirely 

 to those who returned injured, and to those whose scholastic 

 or apprenticeship training was interfered with through 

 active service. 



As to the total number likely to require training, only 

 the merest guess could be made. The fury of the war was 

 so appalling that it was expected that there would be a 

 very large number of men returning too injured to be use- 

 ful in any but the very lightest kinds of work. Events now 

 show that the number, though large, is, fortunately, nothing 

 nearly so great as it was feared it would be. Perhaps one 

 of the most wonderful features of the post-war history has 

 been the fortitude and stamina displayed by very many of 

 the Australians, who, though much injured, have returned 

 to their work and are carrying on without help from the 

 country. Australia in this respect compares more than 

 favourably with the Home and Continental countries, 



