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[This Document is the Property of Her Britannic Majesty's Government.]
Printed for the use of the Colonial Office. June 30, 1898.
SECRET.
No. 189 R.
MAURITIUS.
MAURITIUS.
C.O.
No. 99. SECRET.
Defence Scheme revised to January 1898.
Remarks by the Colonial Defence Committee.
Covering Despatch of Governor.
THE proposals for ensuring the food supply of the civil population on the outbreak of war, as explained in this despatch, appear to the Committee to give reasonable security against scarcity at that time, and they recommend the adoption of Major-General Salis Schwabe's suggestion for ensuring the continuance of the supply of rice from India in the event of cable communication with that country being interrupted.
Defence Scheme, Chapter I.
2. The strategic conditions are clearly and correctly set forth in this chapter. It might be well in the next revision to somewhat shorten it by the omission of matter which more properly belongs to later chapters, and by the condensation of some of the historical and argumentative parts.
3. Page 7, paragraph 2.-It would be advisable, in existing circumstances, to show the maximum landing party that should be guarded against at Mauritius as 3,000 instead of 2,000 men.
4. Page 8, paragraph 4.-It is not considered that a hostile vessel once inside the reefs at Grand Port would experience any difficulty in landing troops.
5. Page 11, paragraph 14.—It is proposed here, in paragraph 14, page 46, and in paragraph 25, page 82, to utilize two small private steam-boats "to patrol as scout- boats at night a semi-circle of about 5 miles radius from Fort George, by which means it is estimated that about fifteen minutes' notice can be given by rocket signals of the approach of any vessels."
In a letter dated the 28th October, 1897, dealing with the manœuvres in August of that year, the G.O.C. made a similar recommendation that two harbour steam- launches or tugs should be employed at night in time of war "to patrol the area covered by the forts and batteries in order to give timely warning of the approach of any vessel.
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