PUBLIC RECORD.OFFICE
Reference :-
C.O.537
ALLY WITHOUT PERMISSION OF THE BE REPRODUCED PHOTOGRAPHIC- COPYRIGHT PHOTOGRAPH—NOT TO
PUBLIC RECORD OFFICE, LONDON
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the War Office. In the meantime, G.O.C. should make arrangements to guard this vulnerable point with the guns and troops at present available. The two 8-in. Howitzers which he has allotted to this part of the defence will be an important factor of it, but it is doubtful whether the top of Mount Davis A high site is not essential to secure the full is a suitable position for them. effect of fire from Howitzers, and their security from an enemy's fire will be better provided by placing them on a reverse slope or in some position where they will not be visible from the front.
4. Pura. 8.-The organization of the defence into six sections, as now proposed by G.O.C., is concurred in.
It corresponds generally with the Scheme of R.A. command received from the station. From the point of view of convenience of controlling artillery fire, it might have been better if the battery at North Point could have been placed in the same fire command as the batteries at Kowloon, which fire generally over the same water, but in view of the greater facilities for supply and other purposes derived from placing this work in the Wong-nei- Cheong Section (No. IV) and of the comparatively minor importance of the battery both with regard to its position and its armament, the arrangement proposed by the G.O.C. is on the whole considered the best.
It is observed that the submarine mining personnel is distributed between three sections of the defence. To secure the most expeditious employment of men, vessels, and stores in laying the mine-fields, and at the same time the responsibility of the section Commanders in the employment of mines and electric lights in the event of attack, it will be convenient to follow at Hong Kong the system that has been adopted at other places under similar conditions. The Officer Commanding the Submarine Mining Company will, under the orders of the General Officer Commanding, lay out the defences, having at his disposal the entire subinarine mining personnel for the purpose. When the mines are pass under laid the officers and men will be distributed between the sections and the orders of the Section Commanders for all matters relating to defence.
5. Para. 9.-The Committee understand that the defilading of the 9.2-in. gun in Kowloon East from hill No. 10 has been authorized by the War Office. They would point out that it is scarcely necessary for the G.O.C. to deal with a minor modification to an existing permanent work in correspondence relating to the Scheme of Defence.
6. Para. 10. The Committee are informed that the G.O.C.'s proposal for the provision of a battery of 2·5-in. R.M.L. guns as an addition to the movable armanient of Hong Kong is under the consideration of the War Office.
7. Para. 13. The Committee are strongly of opinion that the communi- cation of intelligence and orders should be almost entirely by permanent telegraph or telephone lines, and that flag signalling should be confined to short distances within sections as recommended by the General Officer Com- manding.
8. Pora. 20.-The conclusion, stated to have been arrived at after careful consideration, that it is inexpedient to lay boat mines in Aberdeen, Deep Water, and Tytam Bays, is accepted.
9. The subjects of the Inclosures A and B to the letter under considera- With regard to A, tion have been referred to in paras. 9 and 6 above. which is a letter addressed to the Secretary, Colonial Defence Committee, the Committee would point out that they only deal with correspondence referred to them by the Colonial Office, War Office, and Admiralty, and make recom mendations to those Offices. They should therefore not be directly addressed by General Officers Commanding.
10. The Committee recommend that a Defence Scheme in the usual form should now be prepared on the lines of Major-General Black's letter, as modified by the foregoing remarks, and should be submitted through the Governor with as little delay as possible.
April 2, 1896.
(Signed)
M. NATHAN, Secretary,
Colonial Defence Committee.
SECRET.
Colomat offe
Printed for the use of the Colonial Office. March 18, 1896.
cio.
HONG KONG.
No. 54. Secret.
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HONG KONG.
Reply to Remarks by Colonial Defence Committee on Revision of Defence Scheme to May 1894.
Sir,
JANUARY 1896.
Covering Despatch of Governor.
Government House, January 29, 1896. WITH reference to the Remarks by the Colonial Defence Committee, dated the 9th July, 1895, on the Local Defence Scheme of May 1891, and forwarded with your despatch No. 18 of the 20th August last, I have the honour to transmit to you herewith a letter from His Excellency Major- General W. Black, C.B., President of the Local Defence Committee in reply thereto, together with two inclosures.
I have, &c.
(Signed)
WILLIAM ROBINSON,
The Right Hon. Joseph Chamberlain, M.P.,
Sir,
&c.
&c.
&c.
Letter of General Officer Commanding.
Head-quarters, Hong Kong, January 28, 1896. WITH reference to the Remarks by the Colonial Defence Committee of the 9th July, 1895, Hong Kong, on the Defence Scheme of May 1894, for- warded with your Excellency's letter of the 9th September last.
No. 18
I think it right that I, charged with the defence of the place and free, until a Scheme is approved, to conduct the defence to the best of my ability, should give my own views as to the best method of meeting an attack from the waters outside the harbour. Leaving the anomalous position of Lyemun and of ourselves as only part owners of the waterway out of the question, I agree with the tacit assent of the two last Schemes to the defences of the harbour being generally sufficient.
2. While recognizing the care and attention to detail shown in the 1891 Scheme, and the temptation to push the line of resistance southward from ridge to ridge and to treat each glen, isolated by steep spurs, as a separate section, I cannot but dissent from the attempt of the Scheme to watch and defend with about 800 men some 10 miles of indented coast from Sandy Bay to Stanley, for such a defence is weak everywhere and strong nowhere.
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