address on the purpose of the conference, broadcast by General Committee of the Kuomintang snd to limit our total annual military, and aviation expenditure to $180,000,000. We will also. attempt to formulate a military beget, to determine the division of the' country into a number of garrison areas, to draft the regula-the promotion and missal of military oticers and to work out a detailed scheme for the nual disbandment and repatria~ tion of our surplus troops without undue burden on the people."
The Officer Problem of Sblitary Training, is reported by the Kuo Min. According to this speaker, the most difficult problem is. not" how. many officers and soldiers will be disbanded; for all Pilitary leaders realize that only minimum number of soldiers eat satisfactorily maintained, "phe more dificult problem to be solved ix where the necessary funds for disbandment are to come from. To reduce our present army, which consists of approximately 1,600,000 men, to the authorized strength of 500,000 men requires the huge sum $30,000,000! At this period of sional financial stringency, we can only hope that the people wilt their utmost to facilitate the work of those of us who are re: conclusion, General Ho said that among the serious problems which will confront the Conferepee will be the question of placing. employing the large number of dispositions, "These nen are fairly well-educated and sore of them are accustoinew toa high standard of living as befitting their rank; and thie time when conditions are hot quite so favourable, it will be a ditieulty to accommodate all of them properly. But with adapt. tion on the part of the officers and operation from the people, T be-howe the situation will be satiafacterly solved in due course," con-sponsible for this gigantic. task," said General Ho.
$32,000,000 Monthly General Ho then gave an account of how these 1,000,000 men are diswibuted, of whom' the Government. forces amount to 850,000, while the rest are more or lest unclassified provincial forces. And he continued:
"If we allow §20 a month for each soldier for matntenanee, the monthly expenditure is. $32,000,000 or $34,000,000 annually. Our entire annual revenue is, but $450,000,000 which amount shrinks to $120,000, 000° after meeting foreign loan obligations, In other words, if we continue to maintain our present army we will have to spend more than our entire national revenue as compared with IM per cent. by Grout Britain, 82 by Soviet Russia, 20 by France, 18 by Italy, 20 by Amatica, and 43 per oont. by Japan, Hor this reason, we are planning to reduce our army to 500,000 men authorized at the Fifth Plenary Stasion of the Central Executive Nanking, Dee, 26.
The inauguration ceremony off [cially opening: the National Military Reorganization and Disbandment Conference will be held on January 1, 1929, recording ts a decision. reached at a special meeting of the State Council yesterday under the chairmanship of President Chiang Kai-shek and attended by Generals Feng Vu-hsiang, Yen Hsi-shan, Ho Ying-ching, Messrs. Wang Chung-hui and Fai Chi-tao. The cere-many will precede the grand military review on New Year's Day.
Besides Commander - in - Chief nyt Kal-shek, Generals Feng Yu-Insiang, Yen Hsi-shan, Li Chung-jen, Chi-sen and other leading military commanders in the country, seven members of the Central Executive Committee (including the Presidents lof the Five Yuan, namely, Tan Yen-kai, Wang Chung-hoi, Hu Han-min, Tai Chi-tao and Tsai Yuan-pei) will also participate in the Conference. {ito Min,
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.