PACIFIC DEFENCE AUSTRALIA'S NAVY SIR IAN HAMILTON'S REPORT

Evening Post, Volume LXXXVII, Issue 119, 21 May 1914, Page 7

PACIFIC DEFENCE AUSTRALIA'S NAVY SIR lAN HAMILTON'S REPORT

NO ROOM FOR A PEACE SYSTEM, <By Telegraph.— i?ress Association. -Copyright ) SYDNEY. 20th May. Sir lan Hamilton's report on the military forces of the Commonwealth has been published. The Inspector-General lays it down that the actual strength of ( a. State consists "in' the- aggregate striking power of its armies and fleets, which should be as interdependent as the forefinger and the thumb." He. declares that in a militia, army there is no room for a peace system divorced from war requirements, and, therefore, during the period of peace, the military services should bo organised under war conditions. After remarking that Australia's attention co far has_ been necessarily concentrated in training* he «ays : ''The time is now almost ripe for the consolidating of the existing forces into a carefully-planned instrument of War." The Inspector-General condemhs fcbe centralisation of the Defence Department at Melbourne, adding : "Actually the Australian system as it exists to-day is purely a product of peace procedure, and could not hope tn carryxm beyond the first few weeks of a war." Ho advocates the separation of the business administration from tho purely military departments;. The report concludes : "The whole of the regular? and three-fourths of the militia are sufficiently trained to take part in a modern battle, supposing such an occasion arose the day after tomorrow. With two weeks' warning, the remaining fourth of the militia, plus some twenty thousand of ■ the flower of the rifle clubs, would bo available ai reinforcements. " " 1 mean that a. Jarge proportion of th*j forces have not only the willing (spirit, but the actual technical skill requisite to enable one man to handle them in action. But how would they faro on the battlefield, giving due weight to the moial factor that they would be fighting for a country that is well worth defending, and of which they had a local knowledge? They would need to bo in a majority of al lea*t two to one in order to fight a pitched battle with picked troops from overseas on equal terms." The comparative lack of discipline and cohesion, snowing up strongly where large forces are involved, ar& the In-spector-General's reason** ior allowing so large a margin of superiority to tho Australians aa against invading forces.