I
GENERAL VIEW OF PRESENT SITUATION
It is submitted that:
(a) The national growth of a nation depends on the recognition of the personal responsibility of that nation’s citizens to develop her industrial and commercial interests and the integrity thereof.
(b) In the present economic conditions of a young nation such as Australia (an island continent containing an area of practically one-third of the British Empire whose population totals only some five millions of inhabitants), it is not considered advisable or even practicable to establish and maintain a standing army of sufficient strength to enable the nation to put its trust for its protection on such a standing army and, thereby, relieve the rest of its male inhabitants from the responsibility of service in case of an invasion.
The maintenance of such a standing army would, it is urged, be a direct loss, as it would severely cripple the best interests of the economic development of the nation in time of peace, specially in the early years of the nation’s growth, and it would entail an expenditure not justifiable under such circumstances.
(c) On the other hand, it is contested that, if a system of training every young man can be devised:
1stly, To have a sound mind in a sound body;
2ndly, To submit to military discipline;
3rdly, To shoot straight;