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Engineer Company would continue to be as it is at present, under the direction of the officer of Royal Engineers in charge of Electric Lights who appoints the Instructors and annually inspects the unit and examines its members in their work. The connection between this unit and the Royal Engineers with whom its members would work in war is already closer than that between the Volunteer Artillery Companies and the Royal Artillery by reason of the Engineer Volunteers being able to work together with the regular troops at night practice of electric lights while the Volunteer Artillery Companies, armed with Field and Maxim Guns, cannot usefully perform any part of their training with the British Companies of Garrison Artillery who work the heavy guns of the fortress. I have considered the proposal of the Colonial Defence Committee that a Junior Officer of Royal Engineers should be specially appointed Adjutant to the Engineer Company but see no special advantage to be derived from such an appointment.
5
The training of the Volunteer Troop has hitherto been largely in the hands of the Lieutenant of Volunteers commanding it. This is a Mr. C. H. Ross of Messrs. Jardine, Matheson and Company who together
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with