U.S. AND DEFENCE.

Auckland Star, Volume LVII, Issue 208, 2 September 1926, Page 7

U.S. AND DEFENCE.

HER STANDING ARMY. NUMERICALLY INADEQUATE. ECONOMIC CONSIDERATIONS. ] (3y Cable.—Press Association,—Copjrlgtt.) ( (Received 12.30 p.m.) WASHINGTON, September 1. Major-General Hines, Chief of Staff, 1 addressing the Army War College at the i opening exercises, declared that an adequate standing army of 150,000 men i could be organised into a modern defence - establishment for America, but economic ■ conditions keep it considerably below that : figure. He stated that the present authorised strength of the regular army was 117,500. Current appropriations would be ' sufficient to maintain a larger force numerically if the allied questions of supply and training were neglected. "'But,' , he said, "men without weapons only make a useless sacrifice of their lives, and weapons without trained men have no immediate military value. We must never fail to recognise the fact that our first line of defence is the army as it now stands, and that in case of emergency the nation must depend on the personnel of organisations already constituted to hold the line of resistance until great national armies can be mobilised, and trained and equipped for battle."—(A. and N.Z.)