The Commonwealth also maintains a small permanent force of trained professional soldiers.
The New Zealand forces are also organized on the principle of universal training for all males. The details differ somewhat from those in favour in Australia, but the principle is the same, i.e. that every male should be trained for home defence. Boys of from twelve to eighteen years of age are trained in cadet corps, from which they pass to regiments of the Territorial Force, and from twenty-five to thirty belong to the reserve. Cadets do annually a specified number of drills, while the territorial training extends to seven clear days, a musketry course, and certain drills every year. For the purposes of the war, conscription was introduced in 1916, and 220,000 men were raised between 1914 and 1918, out of which the casualties were nearly 57,000.
Canada, unlike Australia and New Zealand, has no system of graduated military training. The military forces of the dominion are organized as a militia under a Minister of Militia and Defence working with a Council. This militia is recruited by voluntary enlistment, and, on the outbreak of war, consisted of a permanent force of 3000 and some 60,000 men who had received militia training. This made possible the rapid dispatch to France of a division which, by 1916, had increased to a corps of four divisions and a cavalry brigade. Like the Mother Country and New Zealand, Canada introduced conscription in 1917, and during the war raised nearly 641,000 men and suffered 206,149 casualties, of which 56,110 were killed, 149,733 wounded, and 306 missing.
The Union of South Africa divides its military forces into the permanent force and the citizen force. There is also a coast-defence force. The permanent force consists of the five regiments of the South African Mounted Rifles. South Africa's greatest military effort during the war was directed towards German South-West and East Africa, but some 27,000 men were enlisted for and sent to Europe out of a total number of 136,000 raised. This total does not include coloured troops. The casualties were 18,000.
In other self-governing portions of the Empire troops were raised as required, and in the West and East African colonies the existing formations of native troops were considerably increased for service in suitable portions of the various theatres of war. The official statement of troops raised shows under the heading of 'other colonies' 134,837, including coloured troops from South Africa and the West Indies. The casualties among them amounted to 7519.