COMMONWEALTH ARMY

New Zealand Times, Volume XXXVIII, Issue 8738, 21 May 1914, Page 6

COMMONWEALTH ARMY

(SIR lAN HAMILTON’S REPORT "“SHOULD BE ORGANISED UNDER WAR CONDITIONS.” )$7 Telegraph—Press Association —Copyright (Received May 20, 9.15 p.m.) SYDNEY, May 20. General Sir Tan Hamilton’s report ■on the military forces of the Commonwealth has been published. It lays down that the actual strength of a State consists in tho aggregate striking-power of its armies and Herts, which should be as interdependent as the forefinger and tho i thumb. Tho report declares that in a militia army there is no room for a peace system divorced from war requireanonts. Therefore, during pence the nnlitarijst services should bo organised under war conditions. Alter remarking.that Australia s at- ■ tentlon, so far, has been necessarily ! concentrated on (raining, tho report states that now tho time is almost ripe for consolidating tho existing forces into a carefully-planned instrument of war. Tho General condemns tho centrali.satkm of tho Defence Department at Melbourne, adding that actually tho Australian system, as it exists to-day, is purely the product of peace, a procedure they could not hope to carry on beyond the first few weeks of a WS Ho advocates tho separation of the business sido of tho administration from tiio purely military aspect, and concludes that tho whole of the regulars and three-fourths of the militia aro sufficiently trained to partake in tv modem battle, supposing that such „ an occasion arose the day after tomorrow. With two weeks warning, tho remaining fourth of the militia plus some 20.000 of tho flower of the rifle clubs, would bo available as roI iafprccinonts. General Hamilton adds: —“I mean that a large proportion of the forces have not only a willing spirit but tho actual technical stall to enable one - man .to handle them in action; but - ]k>w would, they fare’ on a battlefield? Hiving duo weight to the moral factor, and to tho fact that they would bo fighting for a country well worth , defending, and of which they had 10. . cal knowledge, they would need to ho -. in a majority of at least two to one to fight a pitched battle with picked - troops from overseas on. equal terms. Tho comparative lack of discipline .and cohesion, showing np strongly where largo forces are involved, is his (reason for allowing so largo a margin * j<if- superiority to the invading forces.