May 25, 1916 
LAND & WATER 
^ 
not bound to serve outside the territories of each 
Dominion.* 
The Defence Acts contained no such provision as that 
in Section 13 (2) of our own Territorial Forces Act whereby 
the members of those Forces can, through the com- 
manding officer of a unit, volunteer to serve Overseas. 
An.d even as regards home defence the application of the 
compulsory principle was restricted in scope, and the 
training in virtue of it modest in character. 
For Home Defence 
Canada never got the length oi applying compulsion at 
all ; Australia, New Zealand, and South Africa restricted it 
to men under the ages of 26, 25, or 21 respectively, and 
the training imposed on these classes was limited to about 
a fortnight annually in camp, although it had a sound 
basis in a system of compulsory cadet training 
dyring school age.t The Permanent Forces, as 
distinct from their Citizen Forces, were so small as to 
be almost negligible. I believe they did not exceed 
5,000 men in any of the Dominions. The strength of 
the Citizen Forces when the war broke out was far below 
the War Establishment ; in Australia and Canada it was 
barely one-third. The war, in fact, came upon the 
Dominions at a time when they were merely entering 
on their military novitiate. This, of course, only makes 
the splendour of their achievement the more remarkable ; 
the overseas contingents they provided the moment the 
war broke out were no part of the Imperial covenant ; 
they were as spontaneous as they were imsolicited. 
Except for the officers, the overwhelming proportion of 
those contingents represents men who had never been 
brought within the operation of the Defence Acts at all. 
But in one respect we were more than ready. We 
were organised. The General Staff had expanded, 
under the inspiration of Lord Haldane, into an Imperial 
(ieneral Staff in 1908, and in 1909 the first Imperial 
Defence Conference, convoked as an extraordinary 
meeting of the Imperial Conference, had laid down the 
general principles of an Imperial war organisation to 
which each Dominion in turn conformed. An Inspector- 
General of the Overseas Forces was appointed, 
doubling the part of G.O.C. Mediterranean, and Sir Ian 
Hamilton began his memorable tours of the Dominions, 
resulting in a series of quite invaluable reports on their 
military systems — reports which everyone should read. 
How much has been achieved by him and others may be 
realised by a bare recital of the position of affairs as it 
was in 1909, when the Empire first began to think about 
putting its house in order. 
At that date the number of squadrons to each cavalry 
regiment, of batteries to each artillery brigade, of com- 
panies to each battalion, varied throughout the Empire ; 
there was no common type of Field Service Regulations 
and Training Manuals ; there was little or no uniformity 
in the training of officers. There were legal as well as 
administrative difficulties. The command of Dominion 
Forces is vested, not in any officer of the Home Regular 
Forces, but in the Governor, and the King's commission 
issued to officers in England gives them no legal authority 
over Dominion forces. And as regards discipline the 
Army Annual Act does not per sc apply to the Dominion 
Forces, which in this as in other respects are governed by 
their own Defence Acts — hence a real difficulty in the 
case of Dominion Forces serving outside the Dominion, 
because it is a rule of law that Dominion Parliaments 
cannot legislate ex-territorially. 
The legal difficulties were easily solved. Section 177 of 
our own Army Annual Act gives extra-territorial validity to 
aiiy Dominion code of discipline if and when the troops 
are serving outside the Dominion. The Dominions 
have, as a matter of fact, largely adopted our own 
Army Act and the King's Regulations as " common 
form " in their Defence Acts. Those Acts also empower 
the Governor-General in time of war to place the forces 
•The exceptions are more apparent than real. T^ie South Africa 
Act e.\ten(ls the hability to " outside the Union," but conliries to 
" any part of South Africa. " The Canadian Militia Act extends it to 
" anywliere beyond Canada." but confines it to " the defence thereof." 
The Australian Acts e.\phcitly contine it to the Coiunxonwealth. The 
Xew Zealand Act (No. 28 of 1909), makes a distinction in the case of 
the Permanent Force, which is liable to serve " throughout New 
Zealand or beyond." 
t There are variations, but limits of space forbid more particular 
treatment. 
under the orders of the comniander of any portion of the 
Kipg's Regular Forces. Conferences with the Dominions 
resulted in a scheme of interchange of officers for duty in 
different parts of the Empire, under which a Dominion 
military officer on duty in England was to receive a 
temporary commission in the Home Regular Forces, 
and an officer of the latter on duty in the Dominions 
was to receiv'C a temporary commission in the Dominion 
forces; The General Staff became the Imperial General 
Staff, a body in the creation of which Dominion 
susceptibilities were most carefuhy studied, the chief of 
the I.G.S. being at pains to disclaim any desire to give 
orders to the Dominion sections. In return the Canadian 
Government offered to confine its appointments to its 
section of the General Staff to P.S.C. officers, except 
where they had qualified by service in the field. 
The military education of officers throughout the Empire 
was assimilated, our own examinations for promotion 
being adopted, and the British War Establishments were 
accepted as the basis of. composition of units for service 
in the field. The Headquarters Offices at Ottawa, at 
Melbourne, and at Wellington were organised on the 
same basis as the War Office in London. The English 
model was followed in sub-division of staff duties, the 
local territorial organisation, and the system of lines of 
commimication. 
The Imperial System 
Such was tlie Imperial system which had been worked 
out by patient and tactful effort when the mighty con- 
flict came upon us like a thief in the night — a system 
flexible, expansi\'e, voluntary, forged by links which are 
truly light as air but strong as iron. It depends entirely 
on the unsolicited support of willing peoples. The war, 
if it found us unprepared, did not find us unintelligent. 
It is more than probable that this shirt of mail, having 
now bean tested at every link, will play a great part in 
the problem of Imperial organisation after the war. 
Sir Ian Hamilton, in his masterly Canadian report in 
191J, put forward the happy suggestion that there should 
be an Imperial interchange of units — " the presence of a 
Canadian regiment in London, Delhi or Cairo would stir 
the imagination not only of the Five Nations themselves, 
but of the whole outside world." Prophetic words and a 
true inspiration ! Perhaps we shall perpetuate in peace 
what we ha\'e improvised in war, and the mother-country 
and the Dominions may lend each other battalions for 
nianoeuvres and even for garrison duty. 
In the same report Sir Ian Hamilton visualised 
that day in the futtne when the protection of British 
possessions on the Imperial lines of communication 
would in the natural order of events be allotted to 
each Dominion within whose sphere of influence they 
lay. And indeed they were Dominion forces which 
hauled down the German flag in New Guinea, Samoa, and 
South- West Africa ; it may be^ — indeed it is a 
certainty — that the Dominions which have conquered 
them will be empowered by letters patent to annex 
them, and the inevitable result will be an e.xpansion of 
their peace establishments to hold them. Salisbury 
Plain and Bordon have become vast- Imperial training 
grounds ; they may well continue to serve in peace the 
purpose they have served in war. Certain it is that 
experienced staff officers look forward to the time when 
it will be the normal thing for Dominion officers to com- 
mand Regular Brigades at Aldershot. 
The Inve Nations* have met in camp and council on 
the soil of the mother- country ; such nieetings will 
surely become part of the natural order of things. 
At the request of Mr. Thornton, the General Manager of 
the Great Eastern Railway, we are asked to announce that 
arrangements have been made for one of the Ambulance 
Trains, constructed and just completed by the Great Eastern 
Railway at their Stratford Works for the use of the Army 
in France, to be on view at Liverpool Street Station, platforrn 
No. I from 7.30 a.m. to 4:15 p.m. to-day and to-morrow, 
and also on Sunday, from 8 a.m. to 8 p.m. ' Tickets, sixpence 
each, can be obtained at the booking office on the Station. 
• It is i^ot as widel\- known as it might be tf-at at the present moment 
every Dominion has now a considerable coq .-ingcnt on service in tUis 
countrv or in France. 
