2
Page 122
The adjacent German Colony of Togoland does not at present form any serious danger to the Gold Coast. The garrison is believed to consist of only one officer and some 150 native troops. There is no harbour, and Klein Popo, the port of call for steamers, is an open roadstead. The French Colony of Dahomey may also for the present be eliminated from the strategical considerations affecting the coast defence of the Gold Coast, as it is garrisoned only by a depôt company of infantry.
The danger, therefore, to which the Gold Coast Colony would be most liable in case of war is an attack from Senegal. The existing disputes between France and England as to territory in the Hinterland of the Gold Coast render a collision between the forces of the disputants in that region a probable event should war break out between the two Powers.
In considering, therefore, the question of coast defence, it is necessary to bear in mind that, having regard to the liability of land attack, as well as possible difficulties with native enemies on the land frontier, a considerable portion of the forces of the Colony must be detained in the interior, and no general concentration on the coast would be possible.
On the other hand, Accra is the capital of the Colony, and is, therefore, the spot at which a hostile cruizer could deal the most effective blow at our local prestige, while the temptation to select this point for offensive action might be increased by the knowledge that injury could be inflicted on our means of telegraphic communication by the destruction of the shore apparatus of the four cables landed there.
4. If the Governor accepts the above statement of the strategic conditions of the Colony, it will be for him to decide in the first instance the force which it will be necessary to keep in the Hinterland of the Colony, and then whether the whole of the remainder of the available troops can be concentrated for the protection of Accra, or whether small detachments must be made to protect other places, such as Christiansborg or Cape Coast Castle, from insult from sea raids or native insurgents. When these points have been decided, the details of the force for each defended place should be worked out, as well as the measures to be taken for its protection by field-works and guns, for supply of food and ammunition, and for the control of the civil population.
5. In drawing up the Defence Scheme, the lines indicated in the Colonial Defence Committee's Memorandum No. 46 of the 3rd May, 1893, might be generally followed, omitting, however, many headings and details which are not applicable to the special conditions of the Gold Coast Colony. The Scheme should be based entirely on actual conditions and existing resources, and should be confined to the protection of the coast from attack by ships or by landing parties. The question of the Hinterland, involving various matters now under consideration in England, should not be dealt with in the Scheme at present, except so far as it affects the distribution of the forces of the Colony, as explained in paragraph 3 of these Remarks.
6. The Scheme should contain a specific reference to the notification that will be sent to the Governor in time of emergency, instructing him to put it partially or wholly into force. The notification will be in the form communicated in Lord Knutsford's Circular despatch dated the 2nd July, 1891, and it is of vital importance that the simple code laid down in the Circular should be understood and acted on immediately on its receipt.
7. The Colonial Defence Committee desire to call the attention of the Governor to the recommendation contained in paragraph 14 on p. 8 of their Memorandum No. 19, dated the 1st November, 1886, that a small Standing Defence Committee should be formed to assist in the first preparation and subsequent revision of the Scheme of Defence of the Colony. It would probably be convenient if the Inspector- General of the Constabulary were to be President of this Committee, and if the civil side of the Government were represented on it.
The Committee suggest to the War Office and Admiralty that the Officer Commanding at Sierra Leone and the Naval Commander-in-chief of the Cape and West Africa Station should be instructed to assist the Governor of the Gold Coast, by placing at his disposal an engineer and a naval officer for the short time necessary for the first preparation of the Scheme.
Though in accordance with paragraph 5 of these Remarks the Defence Scheme must be based entirely on existing resources it should be open to the Local Defence Committee to submit to the Governor, independently of the Scheme, any suggestions for the improvement of such resources as may occur to them, e.g., for the maintenance of a proper supply of ammunition, for the construction of a defensive reduit at Accra, &c.
Page 122
74
Page 122