Mercury (Hobart, Tas. : 1860 - 1954), Wednesday 27 July 1932, page 9


NAVAL AND MILITARY

News and Notes

Squadron's Spring Cruise

An extensive .programme is outlined for the spring cruise of ships of the Australian Navy commencing on August 24. The most important feature of it is the circumnavigation of Australia ay the flagship, H.M.A.S. Canberra, includ-ing calls at Javanese ports. Canberra, Australia and Albatross will leave Syd-ney on August 24, visiting successively Capricorn channel, Lizard Island, Clare-mont Ibland, Bird Island, Thursday Is-land, and Darwin, where they will ar-rive on September 6. Then they will part company. H.M.A.S. Tattoo will visit Clarence River Heads, Brisbane, Mackay, Bowen, Cairns and Cooktown. Australia and Tattoo will visit Port Moresby (September 16), Samarai (Sep-tember 20), Tulagi ((September 24), and Bellona of Rennel (October 1), thence returning to Sydney (October 7), Mel-bourne (October 17), and Adelaide (Oc-tober 26). Albatross will visit Darwin and Brisbane and will then accompany H.M.A. ships Australia and Tattoo fo

Adelaide.

H.M.A.S. Canberra's programme after leaving Darwin is as follows: -

Arrive. Depart.

Macassar .. .. Sept. 16 Sept. 20 ' Sourabaya .. .. Sept. 22 Sept. 27 Batavia. Sept. 29 Oct. 4 Shark Bay .... Oct. 9 Oct. 10 Geraldton .. .. Oct. 11 Oct. 12 Fremantle .. .. Oct. 13 Oct. 20 Adelaide .. .. Oct. 25

The squadron will leave Adelaide on October 31 and will visit St. Vincent's Gulf, Melbourne and Jervis Bay, return-ing to Sydney on November 21.

PROMOTIONS AND APPOINTMENTS.

Navy. ,

Commodore L. S. Holbrook, R.N., formerly In command of the Royal Aus-tralian Navy, has been appointed A.D.C. to His Majesty the King.

The appointment of the following offi-cers with the Royal Australian Navy

COMMODORE HOLBROOK.

has been terminated on their reversion to the Royal Navy:-Lleut.-Commander P. H. F. Colomb, H. A. Hinds, and Lieut. A. H. T. Fleming.

Army.

The period of appointment of Lieut.Colonel J. W. Turner. V.D., to command the 6th Field Artillery Brigade in Tas-mania, has been extended for a year from August 1.

Major W. I. Clark, M.C., has been transferred to the Australian Army Medical Corps Reserve.

Major'R. S. Gee, D.S.O., V.D., has been transferred to the reserve of offi-

cers.

The following promotions and appoint-ments have been made in the 16th Bat-tery, Australian Field Artillery:-To be Sergeant: L/Sgt. E. J. Coulter; to tie Lance-Sergeant: Bdr. E. J. Jones; to be Bombardier: L/Bdr. W. R. Lyne.

The following promotions in Nos. 5 and 6 Platoons (New Norfolk) of the 40th Battalion have been made:-To be

Sergeants: L/Sgt. C. M. Rhodes; Cor-poral L. A. Voigt; Corporal J. W. Belletto; Corporal E. C. Jones; to be Lance-Sergeant: Cpl. L. R. C. Bezzant; to be Corporal: Lance-Corporals A. J. Curtis, W. B. Dixon; to be Lance-Corporals: Privates S. J. Bellettc, H. O. Purkiss, C. H. N. Cooper, W. Hender-

son.

Air Force.

Flying-Officer A. A. Koch has been transferred to the active list of the Royal Australian Air Force from the

reserve.

The resignation of Pilot-Officer H. F. Boss-Walker has been accepted.

ARE WE "HARD UP7" Admiral Quotes Figures.

Reasons for the retention of naval de-fence In Australia were given by RearAdmiral G. F. Hyde recently at the an-nual smoke social of the Returned Sail-ors' and Soldiers' League in Melbourne. Responding on behalf of the Navy to the toast, "The Services." he said:

"The total annual cost of defence »n Great Britain is £120,000,000; the cost of tho public service is about three times that amount, and Lord Snowden gives the cost of "booze" and gambling as some £500,000,000. In Australia we spend £4,500,000 a year on defence, £9,000,000 on spirits, £13,000,000 on beer, and £12,000,000 on smoke. The statistician informed me that the amusement figure was so colossal that he had not been able to work it out. It shows how hard up wo are. In New South Wales £2,000,000 was spent on the State lottery in 10 months, and the Navy cost £1,400,000 for the year. The betting turnover In Victoria alone was £40,000,000. Of course that was not all profit, as we know. If the people of Victoria can afford that sum for bet-ting and Australia cannot afford £1,400,000 for the Navy, of course we are terribly hard up. We can only maintain the Empire, and continue to hold Australia, by being ready to fight. If we find that our amusements are more important than our defences, God heip us!"

MILITIA STRENGTH.

A militia statement issued by the Minister for Defence (Sir G. Pearce) shows that during tho quarter ended June 30 there was a decrease of 156 m tho militia forces of the Commonwealth. At the end of the quarter the strength of the voluntary defence force was:Militia. 28,129 (loss 156)

Senior Cadets .. .. 3,656 (increase 28) School Cadets .. .. 2,497 (Increase 45)

UNITED SERVICE INSTITUTE.

The lecture on "Some Aspects of Port Arthur," by Mr. Clive Lord, set down for the'members of the United Service Institute at Hobart to-morrow, will no1 be given because of Mr. Lord's illness. In Its place Captain J. Field has con-sented to address members, and to Il-lustrate with lantern Bildes a lecture on "Mechanical Warfare," dealing with a possible battle based on the employ-ment of mechanical vehicles.