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I have the honour to transmit, for the consideration of the proper Authorities in England, a recommendation submitted to the Admiralty by Vice-Admiral Willes, C.B., in 1881, and of which he has sent me a copy.
It would, of course, be presumptuous in a Civilian Governor to offer any opinion of his own on a Military question of this nature.
All that I have urged in many previous despatches is that the War Office should decide on some one of the many plans that have been before it during several years past, for the fortification of this important, but now practically defenceless, Naval and Military Station.
I may observe that Admiral Willes has remarked to me that - looking to the greater progress in recent years of the power of attack when compared with the power of defence, he considers that the defences of Hong Kong are now relatively weaker than...