Printed for the use of the Colonial Office. January 1894.
CONFIDENTIAL.
73R
MAURITIUS.
24
Page 194
MAURITIUS.
No. 40.
Report of Local Joint Naval and Military Committee, September 1893.
Remarks by Colonial Defence Committee.
Part II.
[Not intended for communication to the Colony.]
1. THE Colonial Defence Committee fully concur in the recommendation of the Local Committee that the signal stations should be placed, as formerly, in the hands of British soldiers or sailors. From all they can gather, it seems doubtful if the Home Government was consulted regarding the abolition by a late Governor of the former system of military signallers, or that regard was had at the time to the bearing of the innovation on the question of defence, which has now for the first time been brought to notice. In the event of war these signal stations must unquestionably be taken out of the hands of the present creole staff, and to inaugurate a new system at the outbreak of war is opposed to all principles of mobilization. The present system should be changed without delay, and as the change will no doubt be unpopular in the island, it is suggested that the Governor should be definitely instructed from home to carry it out, so as to relieve him of the odium of initiating the
measure.
If, however, the signalling duties are to be undertaken by soldiers, it will be necessary, as pointed out by the Officer Commanding Troops at p. 14, to correspondingly increase the present garrison.
2. At p. 14 the Officer Commanding Troops again refers to the numerical weakness of the garrison of Mauritius. The Colonial Defence Committee have already recorded their opinion on this subject in their Remarks (see appended extract) on the last revised Defence Scheme of the island, and knowing that it is the province of the Joint Naval and Military Committee to deal with general principles of defence policy, they desire to avail themselves of this opportunity to repeat the general principle which in their opinion should be universally applied to our strategical naval bases, viz., that the approved war garrison of any naval base should always be kept at that base, and that the more remote the base is from the mother-country, and the nearer it is to a probably hostile force, the more urgent is the necessity of keeping our garrison always at its full strength on the spot. The garrisons of naval bases should be regarded as the crews of ships on distant stations, and, as these crews are, should always be maintained at full numbers.
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