Page:1902 Encyclopædia Britannica - Volume 25 - A-AUS.pdf/705

 BRITISH COLONIAL] Colony. Canada 37 Jamaica Leeward Islands Trinidad. British Honduras ,, Guiana. Falkland Islands Gold Coast St Helena. Cape of Good Hope Natal Ceylon Straits Settlements Hong Kong W. Australia S. Australia Victoria 2 Begts. New S. Wales Queensland Tasmania. New Zealand Fiji.

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There are also medical services, including officers and men, In Canada, Cape Colony, South Australia, New South Wales, Queensland, New Zealand, and Ceylon. One or two of the colonies have the nucleus of an Army Service Corps. The establishments of partially paid and unpaid troops in the different groups of colonies are approximately as follows :— North America 34,700 South Africa. 9,800 Australasia 28,600 West Indies 3,000 West Africa 400 Eastern colonies 1,900 78,400 These numbers,_ representing approximate peace establishments, are capable, especially in the first three groups, of large expansion in war by the accession of men who, from their ordinary conditions of life, possess considerable military aptitude. Service in all the forces is at present entirely voluntary, in the sense that there is no man now serving who has been compelled to enrol, but the actual laws governing the forces in Canada, South Australia, Queensland, Tasmania, New Zealand, Jamaica, the Leeward Islands, and British Guiana provide for the ballot, if authorized establishments cannot otherwise be kept up, or in war. In Canada, Cape Colony, and New Zealand, all male inhabitants of fighting age can be called out for a levee en masse. Apart from the permanent troops, the whole of the forces of Canada, Natal (though called volunteers), West Australia, South Australia, Jamaica, and British Guiana, are partially paid, i.e., all ranks receive pay during peace according to the military duties they perform. Those of Cape Colony, Tasmania, New Zealand, the Leeward Islands, Trinidad, British Honduras, the Falkland Islands, St Helena, the Gold Coast, Ceylon, the Straits Settlements, Hong Kong, and Fiji are unpaid, except when called out for active service, though most of the corps receive capitation grants for efficients. In Victoria, New South Wales, and Queensland, though the bulk of the troops are partially paid, there are also unpaid, corps. The forces in Jamaica, though termed militia, do not receive pay for the ordinary drills laid down by law. The general tendency of late years has been to substitute partially paid or militia.for unpaid or purely volunteer troops, as with the former it is found possible, under the conditions which obtain in most of the colonies, to get greater efficiency than with the latter. In Canada the daily rate of pay for a militiaman during training is 2s. OJd. In Natal a volunteer, if mounted, 6s., and if dismounted, 5s. for each day’s training. In South and West Australia a man receives 5s. for each of a certain number of paid drills. Militiamen in Victoria, New South Wales, and Queensland, can by attendance at specified parades, and by efficiency earn £6 : 5s., £6 : 8s., and £7 per annum respectively. The daily rate of pay for a militiaman in Jamaica, during continuous training as distinct from ordinary drills, is 2s. The period of service as laid down in Militia or Volunteer Acts of. Canada, Natal, Wbst Australia, Victoria, Queensland, Tasmania, Jamaica, Trinidad, and British Guiana, is three years.

651 In South Australia it is two years in the active force, and three in the reserve. For the Cape and New Zealand it is not less than one year. For New South Wales, and for the colonies not mentioned above, where the local forces are entirely volunteers, no period of service has been laid down, men being allowed to cease serving on giving notice varying from fourteen days to three months. There is considerable variation in the amount of annual training undergone by the various colonial auxiliary forces. As far as it is provided for by legislative enactment, the average number of days’ training in the year is about twelve. In Canada, Queensland, and Tasmania, eight days is laid down as the minimum, and sixteen as the maximum period, but in Queensland the maximum does not include eight days’ continuous training which may be ordered by the governor. In South Australia the maximum for the active force is twenty-four days, and the minimum twelve of five hours ; for the reserve twelve days’ training is required. In New Zealand 168 hours is the maximum. In all the Australasian states the partially paid troops frequently hold voluntary parades. The regulations for the unpaid volunteers in Cape Colony require for efficiency twenty-seven drills in the first year’s service, and eighteen in subsequent years ; those for the paid volunteers in Natal lay down ten days in camp or twenty-four drills. In Jamaica the Militia Act provides for twelve ordinary drills, in addition to target practice and inspection parades, and in British Guiana for twelve days’ drill a year. All the colonies have already, or are now acquiring, rifles of the same calibre as those used in the imperial army, and the greater number of these rifles are of Lee-Metford or Lee-Enfield pattern. In field artillery there is more diversity, but this is likely to bo remedied in the future. With regard to fixed armaments, apart from those provided by the imperial Government at the imperial fortresses and coaling stations, the Governments of Natal, of the six Australian states, and of New Zealand, have mounted powerful guns at their principal ports. British Guiana has defended Georgetown, and Trinidad and Barbados are likely to follow suit when the state of their finances makes it possible for them to do this in addition to maintaining defence forces. Canada has contributed largely to the protection of Esquimalt ; and Ceylon, the Straits Settlements, and Hong Kong, to the defended coaling stations in these colonies. For the supply of war material the colonies are still largely dependent on Great Britain, but Canada has a cartridge factory, and shell foundry, and there are private ammunition factories in Australia and New Zealand, capable of manufacturing ammunition for Government small arms.

Colonial naval forces are practically confined to South Australia, Victoria, New South Wales, and Queensland. South Australia owns a protected cruiser, Victoria an armoured turret-ship and five torpedo boats, New South Wales two torpedo boats, and Queensland two gunvessels and two torpedo boats. To man these ships there are altogether some 200 permanent and 1400 partially paid or unpaid officers and men. In view of the fact that a considerable imperial squadron, to which the Australian states and New Zealand contribute £126,000 annually, is always maintained in Australasian waters, and that the states have also provided by fixed defences against the raiding attacks of cruisers on their ports, it is difficult to say what function is played by the local naval defences of Australia. There is undoubtedly a desire in Australia to make some contribution in personnel as well as in money to the naval forces of the empire, and the question as to how this can most effectively be done by men thoroughly trained at sea will require consideration. New Zealand, besides contributing to the imperial navy, keeps up naval volunteers, but these are really military forces trained in the duties of garrison artillery and submarine mining. The preventive service in Canada, which includes some 500 officers and men, cannot at present be looked upon as a fighting force. Arrangements are being made for utilizing the fishermen of Newfoundland for the royal naval reserve. Cape Colony makes an annual money contribution of £30,000 to the imperial navy, free of all conditions. Natal makes a contribution of 12,000 tons of coal. It has also naval volunteers; but these, though they have given proofs of their excellence in manning guns of position, have no sea training, and are more properly included in the military forces of the colony.