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Halifax necessarily restrict its operations to a comparatively narrow area. should suffice if some means of first dressing were extemporized at the outlying defences, and if provision were made for the rapid and early removal of wounded or sick to the base hospital in rear.
24. The supply of the dressing-stations with medical comforts is left in an undefined state. It should be practicable to lay down with a fair amount of accuracy the quantity of such stores to be distributed to each, and to show how these are to be procured.
25. It is stated that transport for the sick and wounded will be placed at the disposal of certain medical officers; but there is nothing in the Scheme to show what it is to consist of, or how it is to be obtained.
26. The main point requiring attention in the Scheme of the Senior Ordnance Store Officer is that the issues which he will have to make on the order for mobilization of the defences being given should be scheduled beforehand. It is insufficient to say that corps will then requisition upon him for what they require, which is practically all that the Scheme does in regard to this important particular. It is quite possible to formulate with very fair accuracy the various issues which will have to be made by this Department. These should be tabulated with the amount of each item that is on Ordnance Store charge, what amount of the balance deficient can be procured by local purchase, and what must be procured from England. The necessary demands to fill up the deficiency can then be put forward to the proper authorities in the ordinary way.
It is observed that the orders on p. 30 state the Senior Ordnance Store Officer is to hold a reserve of thirty rounds small-arm ammunition for all the rifles of the garrison in readiness for immediate dispatch, but this is not alluded to in the Scheme of the Senior Ordnance Store Officer.
27. On p. 88 allusion is made to the necessity of protecting certain magazines. If provision for this service is necessary, it should be dealt with in the Royal Engineer portion of the Scheme.
28. It would render the Scheme more complete if, in Part IV, in addition to the instructions to the officer to command the field force, instructions to the Officer Commanding Infantry Battalion, and also instructions to officers in command of sections, were added. The latter would show briefly the area embraced by each section, the troops allotted to it, the arrangements in regard to ammunition supply, feeding and housing of the troops, medical attendance, signalling arrangements, &c., and the various forms of attack to which the section is liable, together with any special orders as to meeting these attacks which might be necessary.
May 27, 1893.
(Signed)
W. PEACOCKĘ Secretary,
Colonial Defence Committee.
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PRINTED AT THE FOREIGN OFFICE BY T. HARRISON.--30/5/93.
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Page 142 Printed for the use of the Colonial Office. June 1893.