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8. With a view to obtaining some assistance to the Nursing Staff at such a time, ladies residing in Hong Kong were invited to attend an ambulance course held by the St. John's Ambulance Association, to be followed by a nursing course, and then to register themselves for the required work. On the termination of the first course sixty ladies presented themselves for examination, and with few exceptions passed it. The further course is to commence on the 16th instant.
9. I have the honour to request your approval of my action in the various matters above detailed.
I have, &c.
(Signed)
The Right Honourable Alfred Lyttelton, K.C., M.P., &c.
Enclosure 1.
M. NATHAN, Governor, &c.
Sir,
Government House, Hong Kong, 9th August, 1904. SINCE the conversation which I had with your Excellency I have given some further consideration to the important question of increasing the strength and efficiency of the Volunteer Force at Hong Kong.
2. The organization of the existing force of 2 Artillery Companies, comprising 3 machine gun and 1 field gun half-companies and 1 Engineer Company, seems to be on the whole satisfactory, and the principal matter that has to be considered with regard to it are the steps to be taken to bring up its present strength of about 220 to the authorized establishment of 400 efficient members. I think it possible that much might be done in this direction by arranging that detachments (8 R. and F.), half-sections (16 R. and F.), sections (32 R. and F.) should be furnished by individual firms or Government Departments or by several firms or departments in combination, by letting half-sections or sections have charge of their own machine or field guns, and by substituting half-section or section drills at places convenient to the members for some of the drills that are now conducted at the Volunteer Headquarters. On this subject I propose to address you later, when I have further details on which to base a scheme, but I should like to know now whether the general idea, which has in view to make it possible for Volunteers to become efficient with less expenditure of time, and which should encourage friendly rivalry between the smaller units of the force, commends itself to you.
3. It has been pointed out to me that there are in the Colony a number of men-senior members of mercantile and professional firms, and Colonial officials of some standing-who, being of a certain age and having many calls on their time, are unwilling to go through the training required by the present regulations for efficiency in the existing Volunteer Force, but would be anxious to render service in times of emergency, and for this purpose would be willing to qualify in musketry. An offer to form themselves into a Volunteer corps, to be entitled "The Hong Kong Home Guard," was made by some of these gentlemen in 1900, and I annex a copy of the Regulations by which they proposed that this corps should be governed. After consulting your predecessor-Major-General Sir William Gascoigne, K.C.M.G.-and the Attorney-General- Mr. (now Sir William) Goodman-who considered that the proposed Home Guard could not be brought under the provisions of "The Volunteer Ordinance, 1893" without straining those provisions, and that it could not receive grants and allowances from the Colonial Revenue under that Ordinance, Sir Henry Blake caused the letter dated the 3rd August, 1900, of which a copy is also annexed, to be sent to the representative of the gentlemen that had offered their services. This letter practically promised certain assistance from the Government to a rifle club, on condition that its members should form themselves into a Volunteer Infantry Company "in the event of serious apprehension of danger."
4. No result appears to have followed this letter at the time, and it is now for consideration whether it is desirable to have the proposals it embodied again put before the gentlemen interested in the scheme. If this were done I should be inclined to suggest "The Hong Kong Volunteer Reserve Association" as a suitable title, which would become "The Hong Kong Volunteer Reserve Company" on the enrolment of its members under the Ordinance. I would fix the ages of 35 and 50 as those within which members would be eligible to belong to this Association, and I would make it a condition of the loan of arms and issue of ammunition at cost price that members joining would formally engage to enrol themselves under the Ordinance if called upon to do so, in the event of an emergency arising, and that they should not quit the Association, within a year of joining it, without leave. Such an engagement could not, without legislation, be legally enforced, but it would emphasize the purpose of the Association, and with the class of members that is anticipated would, no doubt, be faithfully observed.
5. I shall be obliged by your furnishing me with your opinion as to the advisability of reviving this former project. In giving this opinion you will, no doubt, consider whether the Volunteer Reserve Company could be usefully employed under the Scheme of Defence for the Colony, bearing in mind that, although the Association might contain about 100 members, probably not more than 50 volunteers could be counted on as available at any time throughout prolonged operations, and that the nature of their ordinary avocations, which would only to some extent be interrupted by war or internal trouble, would make it desirable to allot them to some post in the immediate neighbourhood of Victoria.
6. Another proposal that has been put before me is to raise a small mounted corps. With regard to a previous suggestion to this effect the Volunteer Committee of 1889, in its first report,
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