Page:A new defence force.pdf/2

 to the colony without any cost whatever, as well as without any draft upon the effective strength of the Indian forces.

For some years past the practice has been to enlist men for the Indian Artillery and Engineers for short periods of service, and at the end of the term, if they have served with efficiency and good conduct, they are discharged with small pensions. The age at which they are enlisted is from sixteen to eighteen, and they serve for fifteen years. These men, then, at the age of thirty-four or thirty-five, are at liberty to withdraw from the service, and the Indian Government is bound to find each a passage to England, or to any of the colonies, should he prefer it. Under this arrangement, numbers of these soldiers find their way to Australia, for there is a contract between the various Indian Governments and the Peninsular and Oriental Company to carry them at a fixed rate. In Victoria and New South Wales there are permanent military forces, and they are recruited largely from this source. Queensland also gets her share, because she has had the wisdom to give land orders to those who pay their own passages to that colony from India, as well as to those who come to that colony at their own cost from Europe. The payment of the passages of these men by the Indian Government is regarded as a payment by the men themselves, consequently numbers find their way to Queensland who would not pass. South Australia, if equal—or it might almost be said any inducements were held out to them to come here.

It is to this source of supply for an efficient artillery corps that we urge the Government to turn their attention. The men can be had for the asking. All that is required is a notification to the Governments of the different Presidencies, that short-service men of good character, from the Artillery and Engineers, will be engaged by the South Australian Government in their local force for a short term—say three years—and that they will be allowed land orders equivalent to the value of the sums paid for their passages to the colony.