Printed for the use of the Colonial Office. November 26, 1894.
CONFIDENTIAL.
94-R
VICTORIA.
VICTORIA.
No. 425.
Report of Local Joint Naval and Military Committee of July, 1894.
Remarks by Colonial Defence Committee.
THE Colonial Defence Committee, when framing their Remarks of the 8th May last on the first Report of the Local Joint Naval and Military Committee of Melbourne, were unaware that the Rules for the Regulation of Harbour Traffic of March 1890 had been amended. It will be seen from the corre- spondence that the amended Regulations were not forwarded from the Colony until the 23rd May. The recent receipt of these and of the necessary charts permits of the proposals of the Local Committee being understood.
The proposed arrangements seem suitable, subject to the following alterations:
1. The Regulation obliging a vessel to wait for a pilot 3 miles outside the Heads would cause extreme inconvenience and risk to our own ships. As pointed out by the Colonial Defence Committee in their Remarks of the 8th May, 1894, the primary object to be kept in view is that our ships shall find safe and ready access to the port at all times. The prospect of compulsory detention outside the port in an unsheltered position would tend to deter our merchant-ships from frequenting it in war-time, and an accumulation of vessels outside the protection of the shore batteries would provide special opportunities to an enemy's cruiser. As the examination anchorages are inside the Heads, it must be arranged that vessels shall be allowed to proceed to them without restriction. It would, of course, be preferable, if it were possible, to have the examination anchorage outside the outer line of forts, but in the present case this is impracticable, and where non-interference with trade and a perfect system of defence are incompatible, the former must be regarded as the all-important consideration, and a moderate degree of risk be accepted rather than hamper and alarm our trade by any hazardous restrictions.
All vessels, therefore, not unmistakably an enemy must be permitted to proceed at all times direct to the examination anchorages, but no vessel (except our own men-of-war) to pass the line, say Queenscliff Light bearing due W. and Portsea Light (near Fort Franklin) bearing S.S.E., until examined. Here they would be under the concentrated fire of both the outer and inner defences.
2. Our war-ships must be exempted from any restrictions likely to cause delay. It might, for instance, be of vital importance for one of our war vessels coming in to coal to be able to put to sea again with the utmost dispatch. To meet such cases the arrangements should admit of our war-ships being passed through the friendly channel so as to proceed up the harbour at all times by night as well as by day.
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