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From Major General V. Hatton, C.P.
Commanding the Troops in South China.
To His Excellency,
The Officer Administering the Government,
HONG KONG.
Sir,
Hong Kong, 19th January 1904
I have the honour to forward the proceedings of the Local Committee of Defence for 1904. You will see that added to the usual number of Officers were, the Officer Commanding Army Service Corps and the Officer Commanding Submarine Mining Company, Royal Engineers; also Captain Carter, Royal Navy, nominated by the present Naval Commander-in-Chief, and at my request Captain the Hon. W. Stopford, nominated as Flag Captain to Vice Admiral Sir G. Noel appointed to succeed Sir C. Bridge.
2.
Since my arrival to take over the command of the Troops my relations with you have been so uniformly agreeable that I feel you will understand that in putting forward the views I do, I am actuated solely by the desire to advocate what appears to me best for the protection of the Colony in time of war as part of the Empire. Should you take exception to my proposals, you will at least admit their force and will see that it is the system only to which I object.
3.
I submit that this annual report has become clogged with a very large amount of detailed instructions (themselves quite unnecessarily detailed) to various individuals and departments, which though they should
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