MILITARY (Contd.)
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quartered in an isolated hut at Scandal Point, and were supplied with as much spirits as they wanted. For their services, the Corps were presented with medals and a plate by the Governor and citizens.
Their employment during the Great War was chiefly coast defence. The latest branch of the service in the Colony, is Anti-Aircraft Searchlight Defence, which is still perhaps fresh in the minds of the public, and will be for some years to come, so as not to need any detailed account of it here.
Two Governors of the Colony have served in the Corps, Maj. Gen. W. Jervois and Sir Matthew Nathan, K.C.M.G.
Expeditions in which the Hong Kong companies R.E. have had to partake included the attack on Canton in 1857. Lt. Col. Phillips and Major Aldrich were in command of the party's sappers. The Major led a storming column against two forts into which entrances were effected by Capt. Durnford and Lieut. Da Costa, who laid powder bags against the gates. After the forts had been captured the R.E. spiked some 879 guns. Major Aldrich and Lieut. Da Costa received special commendation for their "meritorious services."
In 1849 Lieut. (now a Captain) Da Costa and an officer of the Ceylon Rifles were murdered by Chinese pirates in a village on the far side of the Island.
War again broke out in Canton in 1857. The Engineers' strength being very weak at the time a body of Volunteer Sappers was raised in the Colony; and trained under Lieut. Stuart they proved a very valuable auxiliary to the Corps in Canton. In 1858 the party took part in the attack on the town of Namtow.
The year 1859 saw the first attempt against Pekin: serious opposition was met at the entrance of the Paiho river. Of the eighty-two sappers taking part, three were killed and sixteen wounded. The second attempt made in 1860 was successful, when the R.E. constructed with the French a bridge across the river at Sin-ho, also pontoon bridges, ladders and powder bags for the attack on Taku fort. For the attack on the Summer Palace they threw up earthworks and constructed batteries.
The following rather amusing incident took place in Canton in 1858, with a Chinese contractor who undertook to build some huts on the heights. He was given a paper having on it at the bottom a plan of the building, showing the joists and flooring; above that an elevation showing the boarded sides and windows, and above that again a cross-section showing the proportions of the gable and the sides of the hut. After it had been explained to him he was told to make a rough model before starting the actual work. In a couple of days the model was presented. It was a pagoda-looking affair of the following construction:
The lower storey was square, each side being the length of what the building should be; it was framed and boarded, and was in fact the plan of the building turned up on end, forming the four sides of the figure; above this was a storey, also square, with windows, which was the elevation; and, the whole having been covered with a flat roof, he put in the centre a pagoda with a pyramidal roof, each side the width of the cross-section of the hut. He hinted that we had forgotten the doors and staircases, and that he had taken the liberty to add a railing round the edge of the flat roof to prevent the soldiers falling off when they walked forth out of the top pagoda.
I am much obliged to the contributor for these most interesting notes on the Royal Engineers in Hong Kong. There are certain points which might be commented upon, however: the narrative given above (and in the first part, published on Saturday) had been
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