AUSTRALIA’S ARMY

Grey River Argus, 15 February 1946, Page 3

AUSTRALIA’S ARMY

Board Control OPPOSED BY SIR T. BLAMEY. (Rec. 9.30). MELBOURNE, Feb. 14. Stating that any plan, which’did not envisage the essential nature of the services of every individual, was only a perfunctory step, General Sir Thos. Blarney to-day attacked the Government’s defence policy. He said that, in his experience, a system dependent, on volunteers for training was bound to fail. What had so far been decided was a reversion to the evil Military Board system. A big weakness was that control was again to be vested in permanent officers, while practically the whale of the troops and their commanders consisted of citizen forces—the influence which: had made the Military Board itself a battleground of conllic’-ing personalities. The administration staff was topheavy, and changes in the personnel were puzzling in view of the rapid.y declining numbers of the troops. The pay and pensions of the permanent officers ire regarded as niggardly.