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Artillery will require revision when the new system of fire command is shortly published. It therefore appears useless to examine, for instance, the position assigned to the Officer Commanding Royal Artillery, Trincomalie, at Flagstaff Battery, viz., at the most remote point from the most probable point of attack, which is the entrance to the harbour. In this case, the position appears to have been dictated by the existing telephone system instead of vice versa.
11. Page 122.-It is hardly justifiable to assume that the Naval Com- mander-in-chief on the station could, at the outbreak of war, detach any part of the naval force at his disposal for a purpose of such secondary importance as convoying stores. It is just in the early period of a war with a Maritime Power that it is of primary importance that the navy should be absolutely free from all duties of convoy during such time as may be requisite to clear the seas.
To force it to detach ships to insure the safe arrival of either troops or stores would be to so far cripple its legitimate action. As, however, it is most improbable that the proposed extensive boom at Colombo will be approved, the necessity for dispatching these stores is unlikely to arise.
12. Page 130.--The Colonial Defence Committee are unable to acquiesce in the proposal to extemporize "a small bullet-proof fort" by arming and plating one of the submarine-mining boats. The objections to floating defences given above at para. 2 apply equally to the smaller class of vessels, such as torpedo-boats, guard-boats, and such craft as here proposed. Instead of being "a very valuable assistance," they would be more likely to cause very serious embarrassment to the shore defences.
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13. A few discrepancies have been noticed, which are as follows:-- Page 145, 1 (b). The reinforcement of "two" companies Volunteer infantry should be "three," according to pp. 17, 146, and elsewhere.
The Volunteer Artillery, one officer, twenty men, allotted to Galle in Tables (A 1), (B 9), is omitted in Tables (B 3), (B 4), (B 6), (B 12).
Table (B 14). The column headed "Points of Assembly on Mobiliza- tion" is incomplete. It should also be stated how the extra establishment spoken of is to be provided.
Table (B 15). The columns headed "Personnel" and "Officers " do not agree with one another.
November 13, 1894.
(Signed)
W. PEACOCKE, Secretary,
Colonial Defence Committee.
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FRINTED AT THE FOREIGN OFFICE BY 7. HARRISON.-15/11/94.
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