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ments of the Cape Peninsula, when the substitution of new Q.F. for medium R.M.L. guns is completed, will be 32 officers and 682 men. To meet this the Committee have suggested elsewhere that the Imperial force of Garrison Artillery approved for the Cape should be raised from 14 officers and 282 men to 16 officers and 344 men, and that the balance should be furnished by the Colony. As it appeared to them unlikely that the complete strength of the Colonial Corps would be available for the whole period of a prolonged war, they suggested a strength of 18 officers and 450 men should be maintained by the Colony, out of which to furnish the difference between the total requirements and the number of Royal Artillery they recommended, which number it is understood has now been accepted by the War Office. The Committee have not before them the data on which the General Commanding in South Africa based his recommendation to the Commission "that the Colonial Artillery available for garrison gun service should be made up to about 780 men.” Unless it is based on the idea that little more than half the total strength of the corps could absolutely be counted on to be available at any time, the number appears to be excessive for actual requirements. If, indeed, the proposed number can be and is raised and arrives, under the conditions recommended by the Commission, at a high state of efficiency, it would be possible to somewhat reduce the number of Royal Artillery now maintained at the station at a cost far in excess of the proposed total expenditure on the Cape Garrison Artillery. It is scarcely necessary for the Colonial Defence Committee to point out that any arrangement by which the increasing difficulty of furnishing Colonial garrisons from Great Britain is lessened by the greater employ- ment by the Colonies of their own inhabitants for their own defence is most advan- tageous to the Empire. As, however, it does not appear from the Commission's Report that in recommending a force of 800 Cape Garrison Artillery they had in view a reduction of the Royal Artillery when the local troops become efficient, the Committee have thought it right to point out that so large a number as 800 does not appear to them to be necessary in addition to the Royal Artillery now main- tained at the Station.
By a reduction in the artillery it would be possible, without any increase in the total of the troops proposed to be furnished in No. I District, to provide one fortress company of engineers-three officers and ninety-two men. Such a force is understood to have existed formerly as part of the Garrison Artillery. It would be of considerable value in the work which would have to be carried out at the outbreak of war in connection with field and permanent defences, in the maintenance of communications, and in assisting to work electric lights. It would be of great assistance to the Imperial Company of Royal Engineers stationed at the Cape, while it would make the small Colonial army more complete in itself. It would probably be found attractive to the men employed in the various branches of civil engineering in the Colony.
24. Page 19, paragraph 97.-The Colonial Defence Committee note the naval evidence with regard to the possibility of an enemy effecting a landing at Hout's Bay. They doubt, however, whether the probability of such action by an enemy is sufficient to justify any very serious provision being made to meet it. On this subject in their Remarks (No. 152 R.) dated the 31st December, 1896, on the Cape Defence Scheme, revised to January 1896, they reported as follows:
·
+
.
"It seems a question, however, whether the possibility of a small force landing at Hout's Bay
for an advance of
16 miles on their objective is not too remote to justify it being taken into consideration when arranging the distribution of troops and ordering the construction of field defences. Even allowing for accidents, all drafts en route to Madagascar being available, &c., it appears very unlikely that as many as 2,000 men could be collected by an enemy in South African waters, and still more improbable that, if landed, they would care to go more than a mile or so from their ships. Even assuming a force of 3,000 or 4,000 men and a desperate Commander, the action would most probably centre round the works at either Table Bay or Simon's Bay, a feint from the sea being directed against the other port."
In these circumstances, and in view of the fact that a road already exists to Constantia Nek, where an advance from Hout's Bay would be resisted, the Committee do not see that any further provision against such an advance is necessary, though they would suggest to the War Office the desirability of obtaining the views of the General Officer Commanding on the matter. They have already recommended in their Remarks above referred to that telegraphic communication between Hout's Bay
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