officers it will be necessary to depart from the usual practice, and to make the O.C.R.A. also Fire Commander.
5. Pages 15 and 16, Manning Tables.-These Tables would be more con- veniently placed in Chapter III, under the heading of "Action by the Officer Commanding Royal Artillery." They should not include detachments for the two 64-pr. R.M.L. guns that have been mounted on the right of King Tom Peninsula for practice only. The machine-guns, which are infantry rather than artillery weapons, and for which infantry detachments have been provided, should also be excluded.
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Battery Commanders are shown for Tower Hill and Falconbridge Batteries, whereas the approved R.A. Chain of Command, dated the 6th August, 1896, shows these works as fought by Gun Group Commanders acting as Battery Commanders. It would therefore be desirable to show the Staff in each case under the heading of "Group Details." Further, in the Group Details for Tower Hill no N.C.Os. R.A., or of the Sierra Leone Company, are shown, so that no artillery N.C.O. is available as Gun Captain for the most important gun of the Defence, it being apparently intended that the Sergeant-Major should act as Gun Captain as well as Gun Group Com- mander. This is not considered advisable. If the Sergeant-Major is to be G.G.C., and act as B.C., he should have a N.C.O. under him as Gun Captain. It is observed that two N.C.Os. of the Sierra Leone Company are told off as dial numbers at King Tom Centre Battery. This is not necessary, as trained gunners can do the work equally well.
A note to the Manning Tables states that if three R.A. officers are not available at the station the Master Gunner would command at Falcon- bridge, instead of at King Tom Left Battery. If this should occur it would be necessary to arrange for a European N.C.O. to take the place of the Master Gunner at the latter place.
The distribution of the artillery after the arrival of the Sierra Leone detachment R.A., as well as before their arrival, should be shown in the scheme.
6. Page 17, Distribution of Garrison.-The number of artillery, 2 offi- cers and 105 men, given in this Table, is not understood; it does not correspond with the grand total of 3 officers and 128 W.Os., N.C.Os. and men given in the Manning Tables.
In the General Distribution Table the artillery should be shown allotted to the different coast batteries.
It is for consideration whether the force manning and guarding Falcon- bridge Battery would not be more conveniently and comfortably quartered in some of the houses near the battery than in tents.
7. Page 17, paragraph 18.-It is here stated that "it would be advisable to construct a field-work near Gloucester to bar the approach from this side." In paragraph 65 on p. 31, under the heading of "Action by the Com- manding Royal Engineer," two works are referred to, viz., at Leicester Peak, south-west, and Leicester, north, which are not alluded to as existing in the list of works given on p. 13. Provision appears to be made on p. 31 for the construction of only one of these works-that at Leicester Peak, south- west. From the map which accompanied the Defence Scheme it would seem that there are really two field-works which it is intended to construct at the outbreak of hostilities: one just above the junction of the roads from Leicester and Gloucester villages, and the other nearly due west of Leicester Peak, and about midway between the two villages of Leicester and Wilberforce.
The Colonial Defence Committee consider that these works, if they are considered advisable by the O.C. troops, should be constructed in peace by military labour in the same way as the field works that have been already thrown up at Wilberforce and elsewhere.
8. Page 17, paragraph 19.-In this paragraph "it is urgently recom- mended that Signal Hill be included in the system" of telephone lines now in course of construction.
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