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This Document is the Property of His Britannic Majesty's Government.]
Printed for the use of the Colonial Office.
SECRET.
No. 347 R.
HONG KONG.
24
138
C.O., No. 12579/04.
Defence Scheme revised to January 1904.
Remarks by the Colonial Defence Committee.
THE Colonial Office have referred to the Colonial Defence Committee a despatch, dated the 12th February, 1904, from the Acting Governor of Hong Kong, forwarding the Hong Kong Defence Scheme revised to January 1904, and a further despatch, dated 9th March, 1904, on the same subject.
The despatches are printed as Appendices I and II to these Remarks, with an enclosure to the earlier one from the General Officer Commanding the Troops in South China, as President of the Local Defence Committee.
A further despatch, dated the 16th March, 1904, on the subject of the strength of the infantry garrison, is printed as Appendix III.
2. Major-General Hatton submits (Appendix I, enclosure, paragraphs 3, 4, and 14) that the Defence Scheme has become clogged with an excessive amount of over- detailed instructions, which must be subject to hourly alterations, and can only be dealt with by those on the spot. He states that it is his duty to see that such detail as is necessary shall be indicated to those concerned, and the proper orders given, and that he has therefore instructed the Secretary to remove them to an Appendix, to be printed locally in order to avoid the delay caused by printing them in London. He asks that in future these detailed orders and instructions may be exempt from the close criticism to which they have been submitted, and adds that so much time has been occupied in that manner that the Local Defence Committee in January 1904 were recasting the Scheme of 1901, not having yet received back that of 1902.
For local reasons the Defence Scheme was not revised in 1902, but there was a revision to June 1903, forwarded by the late Governor to the Colonial Office in a despatch, dated the 3rd July, 1903, and dealt with in the Committee's Remarks No. 340 R., dated the 27th January, 1904. The printing of the 1903 Scheme was slightly delayed owing to the preparation of two new maps, but Major-General Hatton has been misinformed as to the time the document has been away in London, and will find on reference to the Remarks, which have since reached him, that delay has not been caused by over-minute criticism of the detailed orders and instructions in the Defence Scheme.
3. It appears from a comparison of the revision to January 1904, with that to June 1903, that Chapter I "Introductory Remarks and Strategic Considerations," and Chapter VI "Civil Administration and Harbour Traffic Regulations" of the 1903 Scheme have been retained as Chapters I and II of the 1904 Scheme, and that the portion of the earlier Scheme (Chapters II, III, IV and V) relating more particularly to the action of the military authorities and troops, has been relegated to an Appendix of which it forms Chapters I to IV.
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