"Brains and practical proficiency alone will carry weight with units such as we now have to lead and discipline in Australia." There is no room in that happy land for the promotion of influential incompetence.
The Australian system is working smoothly and well, and presents the spectacle of a trained and disciplined people, far indeed removed from militarism, yet with a corporate sense and a deep and zealous patriotism. Almost equally important is the fact that the Australian Government makes ample provision for all munitions of war and equipment for its forces.
It is with the boys that every country must begin. "I believe this," wrote Lord Methuen,[A] "to be the proper solution for the national defence of this country. . . . It is to be noted that each colony has adopted compulsory cadet training as its foundation. We worked on Lord Kitchener's admirable Australian scheme in forming the Citizen Army in South Africa. . . . The physique and discipline of our nation will gain enormously if the lad is trained from the age of twelve till he reaches eighteen. . . . Let the nation accept the principle and the details can be made to fit in without any difficulty."
With regard to Education South Australia is,
[Footnote A: "Times," January 28, 1915.]
