 By the end of 1914 the naval situation in the Pacific had eased to a large extent due to the sinking of the Emden , and it was decided that there was no longer a need to maintain guards on many of the less important facilities , and instead it was decided to concentrate the home defence network upon maintaining the coastal defences and on guarding ships while they were in port . Nevertheless , in the larger seaports these precautions required the commitment of considerable resources , requiring several hundred men to provide security . The requirement for the militia to undertake these duties was eased , however , when a special corps was raised from men that had been rejected for service with the AIF , to which a corps of garrison military police that had served in the AIF was added later . 
