No29
Printed for the use of the Colonial Office. April 1894.
Page 197
. CONFIDENTIAL.
74-R
CEYLON.
CEYLON.
No. 777.
Report of Local Joint Naval and Military Committee of November 1893.
Remarks by Colonial Defence Committee.
COLOMBO.
THE Colonial Defence Committee are of opinion that it can be of little profit to consider proposals for the minor defences of a port based on the con- ditions which it is supposed that the port will present some ten years hence, as with the progress of naval and military science the conditions of attack and defence may have become very considerably changed by that time. They therefore confine their remarks to the proposals which deal with Colombo as it is at present.
1. As there is no probable hostile naval base within torpedo-boat radius of action of Ceylon, the only form of torpedo-boat attack to which Colombo is liable is by the minor class of torpedo-boats, or launches, that can be carried on board of cruisers. In common with all ports, it is liable to this class of attack as long as the enemy's ships can keep the seas. In moderate weather, which prevails during less than half the year, this class of torpedo-boat might operate from cruisers lying off the coast, or from the sheltered bay of Negombo, but during the south-west monsoon such craft could not be effectively employed. Thus, under average weather conditions, for several months of the year Colombo may be regarded as safe from this nature of attack. Even during the remainder of the year the likelihood of such a raid is insufficient to justify the elaborate and expensive arrangement of boom proposed in the Report. All that seems to be requisite is a certain measure of electric lighting and Q.F. armament.
2. Examination Anchorage. This presents unusual difficulty, as there is absolutely no safe sheltered anchorage in the open roadsteads outside the breakwater, and the prospect of compulsory detention in a precarious anchorage would tend to deter our trade from frequenting the port in war-time. It appears to the Colonial Defence Committee that the principle of examination anchorage cannot be strictly applied to Colombo with due regard to the safety of our trade. All that seems practicable is to lay down that, in war-time, any vessel making for the harbour shall bring-to, viz., stop her engines, about 1 mile off the end of the breakwater, and not pass the line, say, of the Clock Tower bearing S.S.E. until the "inner" (viz., allowing direct into harbour) or "outer" (viz., allowing only into the triangle outside the post-vessels, as mentioned in second next paragraph) permit signal is shown at the Clock
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