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2. The next group of batteries are those at Kowloon East and Kowloon West.
Kowloon East.
Kowloon East is a new battery proposed by the Committee. It will be a great assistance to the defence, as it fires directly over the channel between North Point and Kowloon Dock, and commands the anchorage in case any ships should pass the batteries at the western entrance to the harbour. It would also afford a powerful inner defence, should at any time the naval and military estab- lishments be concentrated at Causeway Bay.
A 64-pounder gun should be placed in this battery to sweep the beach of the southern portion of Kowloon Bay, and to co-operate with the 64-pounder in Kowloon West Battery in the defence of the land front of the Kowloon position.
Kowloon West.
Three 10-inch guns instead of three 9-inch guns are proposed for this battery, and should be provided, as it can only reach at very long range the channels between Stonecutter's Island and Belcher's Point on the one side, and between Stonecutter's Island and the mainland on the other.
The 64-pounder gun will flank the front of the land position.
Appendix No. 4.
HONG KONG.
2 9-inch M. L. R. guns. 1 64-pounder.
Cost-
Battery.. Armament
Total
£
9,533
4,924
14,457
Gun detachment, 51 men. See water colour sketch, general
view of Kowloon, by Lieutenant W. Russell, R.E., No. 5.*
3 10-inch M. L. R. guns. 1 64-pounder.
Cost-
Battery.. Armament
£
11,277
10,755
Total
22,032
Gun detachment, 68 men.
3 10-inch guns.
£
••
13,942 10,755
•
24,697
Stonecutter's Island-West Battery.
The importance of this advanced position is so great that the Committee Cost- have judiciously recommended three 10-inch guns instead of two.
This will entail, no doubt, a considerable cutting away of the top of the hill, but this will be an advantage, as it will enable the battery to be placed at a more serviceable height above the water.
There will be no difficulty in rendering any work here perfectly secure against an attack by land.
A 64-pounder gun to flank the mine-field should be supplied if the mines are laid out according to the last War Office plans, but is not included in the estimate.
Stonecutter's Island.-Central Battery.
No change in the armament of the Central Battery is proposed, but it is at present very difficult to make it self-defensible.
This question is now under the consideration of the Commanding Royal Engineer.
Stonecutter's Island.-East Battery.
A suggestion has been made that the two 7-inch guns proposed for this battery should be placed on the hill above the Cosmopolitan Dock, the reasons being that a battery in that position would command the valley through which the boundary-line runs for more than half the way across, and would prevent troops concentrating there, and that it would, besides defending, equally as well as Stonecutter's East Battery, the channel between the island and the mainland, see down the whole of the water to the north of the island.
Although the site is a most commanding one, and a battery there would fulfil all the above requirements, I agree with the Committee in considering that a work in this isolated position would be most inconvenient; further, it would not be of much consequence whether an enemy's force collected near the boundary-line or not, there being a most hilly, rough, and difficult country between the boundary-line and the flat ground in front of the proposed land position at Kowloon.
1 64-pounder.
Battery.. Armament
Total
Garrison, 68 men, Royal Artillery.† Sce water colour sketches by Lieutenant W. Russell, Nos. 6 and 7. No. 6 of island generally.*
29 inch guns.
Cost-
£
Battery Armament
2,950
4,295
Total
7,245
Gun detachments, 31 men.
2 7-inch guns.
4,730
4,730
Cost-
Battery Armament in store.
Total
Gun detachments, 34 men. Battery proposed on hill over the Cosmopolitan Dock.
Too isolated; not recommended
Barracks between East and Cen-
Barracks will have to be provided in Stonecutter's West Battery for the gun detachments, but as, for the general defence of the island, a barrack for infantry should be provided on the low ground between the East and Central Batteries, the gun detachments for these batteries could be accommodated there also, guard- tral Eatteries. rooms only being placed in the works themselves.
Belcher's Point.
Belcher's Point is the only other sea-battery to be considered, and, as expressed in the War Office Memorandum, it is most important, and, as the distance from this point to Stonecutter's Island is upwards of 4,000 yards, it would appear desirable to place there three 10-inch guns, as proposed in the War Office Memorandum and by the Committee.
* Not printed.
See note on North Point Battery as regards 64-pounder. [1103]
No. 102. 4 M
3 10-inch guns.
Cost-
£
Battery.. Armament
13,310
10,755
Total
24,065
Gun detachments, 51 men. See water colour sketch by Lieu- tenant W. Russell, R.E., No. 8.*
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