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SECRET.
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Printed for the use of the Colonial Office. March 18, 1896.
HONG KONG.
HONG KONG.
C.O.
No. 54. Secret.
Reply to Remarks by Colonial Defence Committee on Revision of Defence Scheme to May 1894.
JANUARY 1896.
Sir,
Covering Despatch of Governor.
Government House, January 29, 1896. WITH reference to the Remarks by the Colonial Defence Committee, dated the 9th July, 1895, on the Local Defence Scheme of May 1894, and forwarded with your despatch No. 18 of the 20th August last, I have the honour to transmit to you herewith a letter from His Excellency Major- General W. Black, C.B., President of the Local Defence Committee in reply thereto, together with two inclosures.
I have, &c. (Signed)
The Right Hon. Joseph Chamberlain, M.P.,
WILLIAM ROBINSON.
&c.
&c.
&c.
Sir,
Letter of General Officer Commanding.
Head-quarters, Hong Kong, January 28, 1896. WITH reference to the Remarks by the Colonial Defence Committee of
Hong Kong the 9th July, 1895,
on the Defence Scheme of May 1894, for- No. 18 warded with your Excellency's letter of the 9th September last.
I think it right that I, charged with the defence of the place and free, until a Scheme is approved, to conduct the defence to the best of my ability, should give my own views as to the best method of meeting an attack from the waters outside the harbour. Leaving the anomalous position of Lyemun and of ourselves as only part owners of the waterway out of the question, I agree with the tacit assent of the two last Schemes to the defences of the harbour being generally sufficient.
2. While recognizing the care and attention to detail shown in the 1894 Scheme, and the temptation to push the line of resistance southward from ridge to ridge and to treat each glen, isolated by steep spurs, as a separate section, I cannot but dissent from the attempt of the Scheme to watch and defend with about 800 men some, 10 miles of indented coast from Sandy Bay to Stanley, for such a defence is weak everywhere and strong nowhere.
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