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Marine Artillery to mount the guns and to keep them and the forts in order, and to form the nucleus of a local volunteer or militia force.
*
"3. That the Colony shall construct and maintain at its own cost the necessary fortifications and emplacements for the armament mentioned in proposal No. 1.
"4. That the Colony shall pay a certain rate, to be hereafter agreed upon, to the Imperial Government for each man and officer of artillery stationed here, in accordance with proposal No. 2.
"5. That the Colony shall undertake to establish and maintain a sufficient force of local volunteers or militia, say 150 or 200 men, to be increased as soon as practicable to the larger number contemplated by the Right Honourable the Secretary of State for the Colonies.
The Committee feel it to be of pressing necessity that, as mentioned in paragraph 19 of Lieutenant-Colonel O'Brien's Report, the surveys of the proposed sites of batteries should be carried into effect without delay; and if Her Majesty's Government will direct that a Royal Engineer Sergeant and two sappers be sent here for this purpose, the cost of their passage from Halifax to St. John's, and of their board, lodging, and extra working pay while engaged here on the survey, will be defrayed from local funds."
In framing their original proposals the Colonial Defence Committee con- sidered that it was desirable only to deny the port of St. John's to an enemy's cruizer, and that such defence as the Colony should be advised to create should be thus limited. They pointed out "that any hostile action directed against St. John's would be limited to a visit of one or two unarmoured cruizers seeking shelter, or in the hope of obtaining money, coal, or stores by forced requisition. Such a requisition could not be enforced if there were means available for preventing a landing; and the damage likely to be produced by such a bombardment as could be carried out by a cruizer operating at a great distance from her base would not be very serious.
It does not appear that these preliminary conditions have been sufficiently taken into account in Lieutenant-Colonel O'Brien's Report, which, in the opinion of the Colonial Defence Committee, advocates defences somewhat beyond the real requirements of the port.
Thus, it appears unnecessary to occupy the hill above Quidi Vidi Harbour. It is true that the suppression of the 64-pr. proposed for this position leaves a certain amount of undefended water from which a hostile ship could shell the town; but, if the harbour were effectually denied, it appears scarcely probable that an enemy would care to expend much valuable ammunition in this way, since the docks and all the shipping would be completely covered from view and fire. Moreover, if, as the Colonial Defence Committee proposed, a trained force of 500 riflemen with two field guns were available, it should not be difficult to prevent the landing and advance upon the town of any party which "two cruizers "could spare, even if a proceeding so risky were attempted.
Similarly, the Colonial Defence Committee do not consider the provision of the two 9-inch guns for high-angle fire necessary, since the 7-inch proposed for Queen's Battery can be mounted so as to range up to 6,000 yards.
Finally, they consider that the submarine mine defence should be limited to a few ground mines in the narrowest part of the channel, and they are quite unable to concur in the proposed boom, which would render the harbour altogether useless to the Colony as well as to the Imperial Navy and mercantile marine.
The Colonial Defence Committee do not consider that it is desirable that a force of the Royal Artillery or of Marines should be stationed at St. John's, as proposed by the Local Committee. Such a course would be contrary to the policy recommended by the Royal Commission of concentrating the Imperial troops abroad in as few stations as possible. Moreover, there appears to be no necessity for the proposed provision in the case of Newfoundland. If com- petent instructors are obtained from the regular army, a local force could unquestionably be raised quite capable of handling the armament suggested by the Colonial Defence Committee, and the Colony would thus be spared the considerable expenditure involved in a military contribution for the mainte- nance of a force from the regular army.
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