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[Page 19]
The Prime Minister, Mr. J. H. Scull in announced on 31 October 1929 that the Federal Cabinet had decided to suspend universal military training throughout Australia. This decision had disastrous long term effects during the next decade. The lessons of history were ignored when in November 1929 a system of voluntary enlistment was re-introduced into the Citizen Military Forces for other ranks. During the next decaade the results of this voluntary scheme would only be judged as a failure.
The Prime Mininster's announcement on the 31 October 1929 might have been influenced by the Wall street Crash which began on 24 October 1929. It expanded into a world-wide economic depressori of considerable duration. In common with the rest of the world in 1931 Australia was in the throes of this severe depresson with its consequent wide spread unemployment.
It was in this unhappy situation that, Tristram James' Army career came to an end. At the age of 48 years he was placed on the Retired List of the Australian Military Forces on 30 May 1931. It was not a good age for him, even if he had been in good health, to have to adjust himself to a different way of life in what members of the second A.I.F., at the time of Demobilisation, described as "Return to Civvy Street**. The gulf of time between to-day and his retirement in 1931 can be gauged by recalling that the Sudneu Harbour Bridge was not officially opened until Saturday 19 March 1932. Relatively few can remember Sydney to-day without its Sydney Harbour Bridge.