INTERIM DEFENCE

Gisborne Herald, Volume LXXIV, Issue 22320, 3 May 1947, Page 5

INTERIM DEFENCE

AUSTRALIAN FORCES BIGGER PAY LIKELY NUMERICAL WEAKNESS CANBERRA, May 2. When Canberra discusses the interim defence forces of Australia soon it is expected to agree to an all-round increase in pay in the services, a slight increase in the proposed army strength of 30,000 and the introduction of retiring pensions for those who complete five years' service satisfactorily. Cabinet Ministers have indicated that .the introduction of compulsory military training is improbable. High' army quarters reflect perturbation at the rapid decline of the Australian Army. The number of infantry who could be put in the field m Australia or any of i.ts territories is stated to be negligible and not to be assessed much beyond 120 natives at Rabaul. By counting every man in uniform the army could not muster more than 35,000 men of all ages and classes, including 10,000 in the Australian occupation force in Japan and 11,000 recruits tor the interim army, some of whom are raw material. Apart from the Japan force and recruits other available men comprise an assortment of clerks, hospital orderlies, and ordnance men scatteied through the States. The reason for the pcsition was stated by a high Army authority to be preoccupation with demobilisati’ n.