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defensive purposes, one-third of the men for manning the guns may be infantry soldiers, and the garrison for the main portion of the defence may be put down at 160 artillery, 174 infantry, 50 submarine miners; 50 infantry should be added for Little Pass and contin- gent general services.
Appendix No. 4.
ADEN.
Distribution.
Artillery. Infantry.
Engineers.
Morbut
82
88
Tarshayne
Little Pass
Submarine miners
78
86
50
50
160
224
50
Total of all arms
434
The Main Pass will require 70 men, of whom 36 should be artillery; Munsoorie Lines will require 46 men, of whom 24 should be artillery; the isthmus line will require for the salients 56 men, of whom 40 should be artillery; and for the flanks 138 men, of whom 90 should be artillery.
Distribution.
Artillery.
Infantry.
Engineers.
Main Pass Munsoorie Lines Isthmus
36
34
•
24
130
··
23
22
64
190
120
Total of all arms.
310
Jebel Huddeed, El Geriff, and El Erigh will require 48 men, of whom 32 should be artillery. Seera Island 102 for the batteries, of whom 68 should be artillery, and 50 for general purposes. To these numbers should be added 600 for reserve, store, commissariat, and other purposes, and 100 cavalry.
Distribution.
Artillery.
Infantry.
Engineers.
Cavalry.
Jebel Huddeed
32
16
Seera Island--
Batteries
68
34
Keep
50
Reserve: Store, Commissariat, &c.
600
100
100
700
100
900
Total of all arms.
The total garrison would be:---
450 artillery, 1,044 infantry, 50 engineers, 100 cavalry, making a total of all arms of 1,644.
Sir W. Jervois estimates the necessary garrison at 1,653 of all arms, but he provides little more than half the number of artillery provided above; if the number of these be reduced-and it might be by 56-at least 112 infantry should be substituted for them, and the total would stand at 1,700 of all arms.
The strength of the garrison in 1871 was 1,653; the information in this Office does not show how they were accommodated, but it seems almost certain that no expenditure for barracks can be necessary.
The works recommended herein will hold the l'eninsula as well as the Bay of Aden, and will render the anchorage, or inner harbour, a secure port of refuge.
The bay is too open a roadstead to be entirely denied to an enemy, but the inner harbour may be denied by the works at Ras Morbut, the submarine mines, and two gun- boats of the "Comet" class; but in this case it may be doubtful whether the revision of the land lines and the town defences should not still be carried out.
The cost of the schemes may be summarized as follows:-
1. Defences for bay and peninsula to form a port of refuge, 198,3857.
2. Defences to deny inner harbour to an enemy, 88,3601.
3. Defences to deny inner harbour to an enemy if town defences be carried out
also, 113,990.
But while No. 1 answers the conditions formulated in the first head of information asked for by the Royal Commission on the Defence of British Possessions and Commerce Abroad, No. 2 does too little, and No. 3 too much, to satisfy the conditions formulated in the second head.
Neither 2 nor 3 can therefore be recommended.
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