SOUTH AFRICAN ARMY

Evening Post, Volume LXXXIII, Issue 97, 24 April 1912, Page 7

SOUTH AFRICAN ARMY

DEFENCE BILL AMENDED AGE FOR SERVICE RAISED. AVIATION SCHOOL PROVIDED FOB By- Telegraph.— Preen Association.— Copyright. (Received April 24, 8.10 a.m.) CAPETOWN, 23rd April. Th© Select Committee has amended ■the Defence Bill raising the age for compulsory training from seventeen to twenty-one, and abolished the capitation payment by citizens exempted by ballot. The Bill will provide for an aviation Bchool preliminary to the enrolment of an aviator corps. The text of the South African Defence .Bill laid down the principle of the liability of every citizen to assist in the defence of the country. The scheme, which is modelled on the Swiss system, proposes, however, only to train annually the number of citizens reasonably required, for defence. It provides that the Government bhall periodically lix the number of men required. The training period was set down for four years, between the ages of seventeen and twenty-five, and to consist of as many day and 1 night drills a» may be necessary to fit recruits for the ranks, plua eight to fifteen days' continuous training annually. Rifle association training is provided' for the remainder of the citizens not undergoing military training. These latter, however, were also pay £1 yearly for twenty-four years. Coloured persons are entirely excluded from war service or peace training and from the money contribution. The Bill provided for a ballot if the active citizen force should prove inadequate. It is estimated that the scheme will cost the union an extra £300,000 a year, taking into account th© present expenditure on defence and police.