MILITARY NOTES.

Dominion, Volume 5, Issue 1252, 7 October 1911, Page 9

MILITARY NOTES.

[Edited Bt Ecdelom.l Petty officers who transfer directly fTom Ihe Royal Navy to tho Royal Australian Navy will bo entered in tho latter service with the rating and seniority held by them in (he former, and a similar procoduro will bo followed in tho cases of men knt from the Royal Navy. All vessels and ships of the. Australian, Navy shall fly at tho stern the white ensign, as a pyinbol of tko authority iof tho Crown, and at tho jackstaft' the distinctive (lag of tho Commonwealth. Thin arrangement of Huge was agreed to at.tho Imperial Conference, aii'l was embodied in tho naval agreement. White ensigns were displayed on all the' Australian vessels for tho first (iiiio a few days ago. ■' Tho Australian Naval Board has directed that the folluwing articles of , bedding arc to bo lent to men on joining tho sea-going service•.—Ono hair mattress, 1 blajikct, 2 bed-covers, 1 kit-bag, 2 hammocks, 1 got of clews nnd lashings. These will bo transferred from ship to ship with the men, and \vill bo replaced when found to bo worn out, precautions being taken to make every man responsible for the care of his bedding. The men will bn required to defray, from their clothing allowauco, any loss or damage due to their own negligence. Coinplcto figures concerning (he com« mencoment of compulsory, military train■ing in Australia are now available, The total number of youths of t ruining ago in the areas is 153,775. Of these moro than 50,000 have been exempted without medical examination. They are living too fitr from training centres, or in inaccessible districts which, cannot yet bo brought within the reach of tho organisations. In addition,- (5555 have been declared, after medical examination, to bo unfit for tiaiiiing, and the total number liablo for training has thus been brought down to 91,419. . Of these 5000 have yc-t to Iμ hunted up by the areas authorities, and introduced to the drill. Owing to disagreement with the area doctors, inspection of junior cadets, which was commenced in July, has not proceeded far. The inspection is less severe than that of t-cnior cadets, with tho result that tilio percentage of "fit" boys of twelve and thirteen years of ago is shown to bo even, higher than the high percentages obtained in tho senior .cadet inspections. Junior cadets are expected to number 80,000. Tlip work of levelling (ho sites for tho fortifications of tho Panama Canal:.'hoe been begun, and Congress has appropriated A'GOU.DOO out of the JC2.-lflO.Ono-which is estimated to bo necessary to carry out tho project. It has been decided, says the l Washington correspondent of "The Times," to entrust the work to (he Canal Commission, and the large force of men employed by it, Colonel Goethnla, chief engineer of the canal, being authorised to assume charge of nil the operations, under instructions, from General Wood, Chief of .. Stuff of the Army, and President of (ho Canal Defence Boavd. While tho plain arc not yet quite complete, it is expected 'that tlro'vanal itself and the fortifications will be finished at the same date, January 1. 1!)15. Six sites have been selected for the fortifications. Four of these arc upon, islands at tho Pacific entrance to tho canal, and the other two nTC'on tho points opposite Christobal and Colon. Tho lines•lion of the number and calibre of thn guns to bi; mounted is still under constdorntiou, but nothing less than 12in. cnlibro will bo used (for the mortars), while Hiu.. and possibly lGiii. guns will constitute the rest of the armament. Tho.. plan tentatively adopted calls for at least 3-1.■ 12in. mortars, placed.in fix batterjes: , at'each entrance, and" to? two batteries, of : Win. disappearing guiis or one bat-:; tery of lGin. guns at each of the- six Cites. ; Th'o scheme will 'be submitted to the President within a few days.

At tho-Altahot riflo meeting, which.: was held recently, several new features'' fW-tfre included in tho programme, among'i< them being the more practical nature of iS tho Machine Gun Cup competition, which tested I'ho teams using tho Runs in a most thorough manner; tho introduction of moving and other targets in tho ininiaturo riilo. competitions j-aud n special competition for teams . using tho Marmdia Kango Finders. Ho far, the scores made in the competitions which have already been decided have been eminently satisfactory, especially as tho conditions under which' these havo been fired have in some instances beon-mado in'oro difficult. "Service-" shooting has been, as heretofore, the.keynote of tho meeting, every encouragement being given by means of generous prizes to tho rank and filo to improve in what is known as snap-shoot-iug'ht various distances' at figure targets, and rapid fire accurately applied to figure targets exposed for very short periods. The interesting conditions under Which tho various team competitions have been conducted have proved very attractive, and tho number of entries received show a substantial increase over those of last year. Tho Marindiu Range rinding competition was designed for battalion teams ot four hnco-scrgennts or corporals drawn, fiom different companies. Four range*. on scrvipQ targets, between 300 and 2000 yards, had to be taken by each member of tho team, in a time allowance of h\ miiiute:i, including the time taken to gel: the instrument out of its ease and mounted. The order of merit was docided on llw degress of error made. An "alarm' , competition, open to com. pany teams of one non-commissioned officer, who did not fire, and five privates, was also interesting. . The commander, after placing one private a; a sentry under cover in the trench, at a spot pointed out to him, retired with the remainder of his team. On (lie of the target tho sentry at oncc.gavo tho "alarm and opened fire.' Tho romnmder of the. team doubled to the sentry, got tinder cover, loaded, and also.openod fire, and continued until the target disappeared (tho target remained mi view for one miuute). No uia(i was allowed to fire until he got , . into the trench. Direct hits only oouiiU' cd one point each. ' ;