DEFENCE REDUCTIONS.

Wanganui Chronicle, Volume LXXVI, Issue 18480, 15 May 1922, Page 8

DEFENCE REDUCTIONS.

COMMON W E ALT II PRO 1 'OS A LS. SYDNEY, May 13. Mr Hughes announced the Government’s defence policy ait Mullimbimby. He stated that the Estimates had been framed on a basis providing for a total reduction of £1 75,000 below the estimated expenditure ot 1921. The reductions had been made possible bjothe Washington decisions. Limited defence measures were necessary, hence provision was being made for the manufacture of munitions, but with a reduced output, so that a nucleus defence organisation would exist, to be amplified in ease of emergency. The Government intended to use the 1 2-guns on the Australia for strengthening coastal defence. A number of vessels in the Australian fleet would be placed in reserve, also the submarine flotilla The personnel of the latter would be retained and distributed among vessels in commission, to be available if necessary. There would be 'the greatest reductions in the army. It was proposed to abolish Junior Cadet training. Cadets in future would be trained between the ages of 1 6 and IS, and then pass into the Militia, ceasing at 20. Compensation would be paid to soldiers retired, unless absorbed into other Government departments. The Air Service for the present would be reduced from four squadrons to one. but the civil aviation vote would be increased.