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Printed for the use of the Colonial Office. December 24, 1895.
MAURITIUS.
MAURITIUS.
No. 74.
Report of Local Joint Naval and Military Committee of August 1895.
Remarks by the Colonial Defence Committee.
THE General Officer Commanding at Mauritius, in forwarding the proceedings of the Local Joint Naval and Military Committee, expresses a hope that a Local Defence Scheme may eventually be approved, and that the shorter, the more concise, and the more definite the Scheme can be made the better.
The Colonial Defence Committee desire to point out that the Defence Scheme, revised to January 1895, was recommended for approval in their Remarks dated the 9th August, 1895, subject to certain modifications suggested in those Remarks, and was considered, "as a whole, clear and definite." The General Officer Commanding will understand that no final approval can be given to a Scheme which must require modification from time to time according to altered conditions, or on account of new aspects of previously existing conditions being brought forward and leading to the reconsideration of the arrangements they involve.
Telegraphic Communication.
2. The Local Committee recommend that the Citadel (Fort Adelaide) should be connected with the military telephone system, and that arrange- ments should also be made to include Signal Mountain in this system.
The Colonial Defence Committee concur in these recommendations, but they would point out that, according to the Defence Scheme revised to January 1895, there appears to be already telegraphic communication between Port Louis and Signal Mountain, and that the whole system of tele- phone lines for general administrative purposes should be carefully considered by the General Officer Commanding in connection with the artillery and other lines for command purposes, concerning which the Committee understand he is now submitting proposals.
Electric Lights.
3. The Colonial Defence Committee, in their Remarks dated the 19th January, 1894, proposed a divergent beam on the left flank of Fort George. The Joint Naval and Military Committee on Defence, in their Report No. XIV, decided that the beam should be placed on the other side of the harbour. The Local Committee, in the Report now under consideration, propose that there should be a divergent beam on both sides, which would have the "advantage
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