246
No. 103.
THE HONGKONG GOVERNMENT GAZETTE, 11TH MAY, 1878.
GOVERNMENT NOTIFICATION.
Pending the issue of further Standing Orders from the Orderly Office of the Hongkong Volun- teer Artillery Corps and the Hongkong Volunteer Rifle Corps in course of enrolment, the following particulars are published for general information.
By Command,
·Colonial Secretary's Office, Hongkong, 11th May, 1878.
J. M. PRICE, Acting Colonial Secretary.
THE HONGKONG VOLUNTEER ARTILLERY CORPS.
The Hongkong Volunteer Artillery Corps will be organized as an adjunct to the regular forces to be employed at the batteries in course of formation.
Such of the inhabitants of Hongkong as shall offer their services as Artillery Volunteers and be approved of as such by His Excellency the Governor, shall subscribe their names upon the roll of the Corps, and shall, upon being duly notified by the Commanding Officer, take the oaths prescribed
VIII of Ordinance 2 of 1862.
Volunteer will be drilled at least once a day in preliminary infantry drill, squads
se under duly qualified drill instructors from the regular troops.
1 progressively from squad to squad according to proficiency, and to arrive
→ possible should be an object of ambition to all.
reliminary infantry drill, members will be instructed in gun drill, but
the latter unless he shall have passed the first squad.
leting its preliminary infantry drill will be placed under the tuition of oned officers under the supervision of the Officer Commanding Royal te may be prepared to receive, and they will be instructed in the drill
ans in the command.
ke place daily, morning and evening, at the ers to select either the morning or eve1
The uniform of the Corps will be supplied by the Colonial Government, an fitting smock of dark blue serge with scarlet collar and cuffs, white shoulder
ours as the preli-
as may suit their
us t of a loose and white metal
buttons. White trowsers in summer, and in winter blue serge trowsers with narrow red stripe. White pith solar helmet and pugree during the summer months, and in winter round blue forage cap with white band. A white waist belt for ammunition pouch when necessary.
The Corps will be armed with Snider rifles and bayonets, and members will be taught the manual and firing exercises by the military drill instructors, as far as may be found practicable without undue interference with their gun drill. The manual and firing rifle drill, though of importance subordinate to the artillery one, will be essential in the event of close quarters.
With the sanction of the Officer Commanding the Troops, the Commandant of the Corps will be a military officer and will be appointed by His Excellency the Governor.
His Excellency will, as far as possible, select the officers of the Corps from a list of names to be chosen by the Volunteers themselves by election.
Non-commissioned officers will be appointed by the Commandant. The drill instructors will, with the concurrence of the Officer Commanding the Forces, be selected from among the most competent regular military non-commissioned officers on the station.
The Corps will be formed into batteries; each battery to be lettered A, B, C, D, etc., according to the number of volunteers, and to have a certain number of officers and non-commissioned officers.
Hours and places of parade will be duly notified to the Corps. An office or orderly-room will be opened at the Government Offices (on the ground floor-opposite the Colonial Treasury), where all the business of the Corps will be transacted and all returns kept connected with its equipment and
movements.
The preliminary squad drills will take place on the green formerly the Parade Ground of the old Volunteer Corps, situated opposite the Government Offices. The subsequent artillery drills will take place in Wellington or Murray Batteries as the Military Authorities may decide.
When the Volunteer Companies shall have mastered their gun drills, they will be expected to *inue them periodically by way of practice at the different batteries to which the Military Authori-
ay hereafter a
the