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[This Document is the Property of Her Britannic Majesty's Government.]
Printed for the use of the Colonial Office. March 9, 1898.
SECRET.
No. 178 R.
SIERRA LEONE.
SIERRA LEONE.
C.O.
No. 193, SECRET.
Defence Scheme revised to January, 1897.
Remarks by the Colonial Defence Committee.
THIS revision of the Defence Scheme, stated by the Governor and the Officer Commanding the Troops to be for January 1897, embodies the alterations suggested by the Colonial Defence Committee in their Remarks No. 150 R., which were received in the Colony in February of that year. The revision was submitted by the Officer Commanding the Troops in November 1897, and it appears to deal with the resources actually available at that date. In future it is hoped that it will be found possible to revise the Defence Scheme up to the 30th September of each year, and to submit early after that date the revised Scheme, thus following the procedure laid down in Lord Knutsford's Circular despatch of the 22nd October, 1890.
Covering Letter of Governor.
2. The Governor regrets that the finances of the Colony will not admit of the necessary outlay by its Government for the construction of a field-work such as he' recommended in his despatch of the 22nd September, 1896, which "would secure almost perfect immunity from attack from overland, considering the small force at the disposal of the French for such an enterprise." In the despatch referred to the Governor recommended the construction of two field-works-one at Karene and one at Koinadugu, the civil head-quarters of the two northern districts of the Sierra Leone Protectorate. The Colonial Defence Committee, in their Memorandum No. 81 M., dated the 10th November, 1896, considered that the advanced post at Karene would be of strategic importance in war, and though the occupation in force of Koinadugu appeared to them a less obvious necessity, they deferred to the Governor's superior knowledge of the local conditions, and recommended his proposals for approval.
It is presumably to the work at Karene to which the Governor refers in his present despatch. The construction of a defensible enclosure, and of the necessary store-buildings and magazines inside it, should not involve any very large expenditure, and the Colonial Defence Committee recommend that the Governor should be asked to submit as early as possible an approximate estimate both for this work and that at Koinadugu, so that the means of providing funds for them may be considered.
Covering Letter of O.C. Troops.
1
3. The Committee understand that Murray Town battery and its armament and the electric light installations at Murray Town and Farren Point will be completed in the present year, and that the fourteen Maxim guns authorized for the station have now
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