ALT. ORIGINS

Evening Post, Volume CVII, Issue 32, 9 February 1929, Page 20

ALT. ORIGINS

PLACES OF BIRTH

An interesting light is thrown upon the composition of the A.I.R in a letter addressed recently to Mr. W. J. Braithwaite, of Liverpool, by Captain Mackintosh, officer in charge of Base Bccords, says the "Sydney Morning Herald." Mr Braithwaite had been moved to make inquiry by the allegation frequently repeated that the Australian Army was composed largely of units of British birth—that it was not essentially an Australian force. As this became a question of the composition of the actual embarkations rather than of the enlistments, which were made in various States, the places of birth had to be worked out, with tho following results as now given from Baso Eocords:- 1- ■ ' Queensland 28,253 Now South Wales .... 88,250 Victoria . ...." 92,553 . South Australia .... 27,761 . Western Australia .... 5,042 i Tasmania. i;!,.lO-.l United Kingdom 64,221' New Zealand 't,2.U Other British countries 2.2-1-6 Foreign .countries .... .'!,1,"7 Total ' ......."......■. 331,781. It will be seen from Has summary that 77 per cent, of tho men of tho A.I.F. who left Australia for the front in the Great War were native-born.