22
>
might be well to erect a battery of 4 guns on the Panmure side in anticipation of the bar being removed.
23
No. 22.
FRED. THESIGER, Lieutenant-General,
Commanding Forces in South Africa.
(Confidential.)
Sir,
(Signed)
Cape Town, July 17, 1878.
APPENDIX (A).
Table Bay.
Near Bloomberg, where Sir D. Baird landed in 1806.
Table Bay. All parts
Three Anchor Bay. One boat only.
Botany Bay. One boat only.
Camp's Bay. Very difficult.
Commetje Bay. Very difficult.
Hout's Bay. Good landing.
Chapman's Bay.-Good landing.
From thence to Cape Point fishing boats can land at a few points; but it is risky and dangerous. No landing in force can be attempted.
Simon's Bay.
False Bay, Kalk Bay, Visch Hock Bay, Elsjes Bay:-No landing in south easterly gales but in other winds possible.
No. 20.
The Right Hon. Sir M. E. Hicks Beach, Bart., to Sir Henry Barkly, G.C.M.G., K.C.B.
(Secret and Confidential.) Sir,
Downing Street, April 17, 1879.
I HAVE the honour to transmit to you a copy of a Confidential letter from the War Office, inclosing a copy of a Confidential Memorandum by General Sir Lintorn Simmons, G.C.B., Inspector-General of Fortifications, on the general question of the defences of the Colonies and of the commercial ports of the United Kingdom, and suggesting that a small Committee should be appointed to consider the first of these questions.*
2. It affords me much pleasure to take this opportunity of expressing my sense of the valuable service you have rendered as a member of the Temporary Defence Committee, and I trust that you will be prepared to give ller Majesty's Government the benefit of your assistance as a member of that now proposed to be appointed.
I have, &c.
(Signed) M. E. HICKS BEACH.
No. 21.
Sir Henry Barkly, G.C.M.G., K.C.B., to the Right Hon. Sir M. E. Hicks Beach, Bart.
(Secret.) Šir,
1, Binu Gardens, South Kensington, April 18, 1879. WITH reference to your letter of yesterday's date,† transmitting copy of a Confidential communication from the War Office on the subject of the defences of the Colonies, I have the honour to state that I shall be happy to serve, in accordance with the wish which you are good enough to express, on the Committee which Her Majesty's Government propose to appoint to consider and report upon this question.
War Office to Colonial Office.
War Office, April 19, 1879. I AM directed by the Secretary of State for War to acknowledge the receipt of your Secret and Confidential letter of the 8th February, relative to the proposed appointment of a local Committee in Hong Kong, to consider the question of enlistment of auxiliary forces to supplement the regular garrison of that place.
With reference to the second paragraph of your letter, I am to observe that the opposition of Sir Thomas Wade to the enlistment of Chinese at Hong Kong appeared to Colonel Stanley to refer to the larger proposal to recruit a force of 20,000 men for service as soldiers, in India or elsewhere, and that as at the present time no Chinese are employed except, possibly, a few among the 86 gun Lascars now in the Colony, it can scarcely be considered that the narrow limits referred to by Sir T, Wade have been reached; but Colonel Stanley, in suggesting a Committee, did not intend that its functions should be limited to the consideration of the possibility of raising an auxiliary force for the defence of the Colony composed exclusively of Chinese, but was anxious to obtain the views, generally, of the Committee as to the possibility of raising such a force, whether composed of Europeans, Chinese, Malays, or any other material.
He observes that the Governor, in a despatch No. 20 of the 13th February, 1878, suggested the formation of a volunteer force of Portuguese, also of re-establishing a volunteer corps which had been formerly raised among the European residents; and, in another despatch, referred to the possibility of converting a portion of the Chinese police into an armed force available for general defensive purposes.
>
The object which Colonel Stanley had in view was to obtain a report as to the possibility of supplementing the small Imperial force ordinarily maintained in the Colony, and of turning any and every available and trustworthy local means to account, by organizing it so as to make up the garrison to what is requisite for an effective defence in time of war.
With respect to the observations of Sir Michael Hicks Beach that the objections of Sir Thomas Wade to the employment of Chinese apparently related to a state of peace as well as war, I am to state that Colonel Stanley had not given that interpretation to Sir Thomas Wade's views. His Excellency says: "I can imagine no better soldiers, but I would never trust them without an admixture of Europeans, and it would be well, at all times, to leave magazines, munitions of war, and the like, exclusively in charge of the latter. Neglect of this precaution at Hong Kong would, I believe, be attended with the most serious consequences."
In suggesting that the whole correspondence should be laid before the Committee, Colonel Stanley wished that these observations, to which, considering the source from which they emanate, too great weight cannot be attached, should receive their most careful attention, as no doubt positions of the highest trust could not be confided to Chinese; but this, after the expression of their value as soldiers, could scarcely apply to their being mixed up
in small bodies with European infantry.
With regard to the further question raised by Governor Hennessy, of recruiting Chinese regiments for service elsewhere than at Hong Kong, I am to state that Colonel Stanley had regarded Sir Thomas Wade's strong objection to raising such a force in Hong Kong itself, on account of its close proximity to the mainland of China, an objection in which he himself, as well as Lord Salisbury, entirely concurs, as conclusive as to the impolicy of attempting to raise such a force in that Colony, and he, therefore, considered it would not be judicious to refer this question to a local Committee in Hong Kong.
I have, &c.
EUSTACE E. CECIL. (Signed)
• No. 4.
I have, &c.
(Signed)
HENRY BARKLY.
+ No. 19.
* No. 11.
H
[708]
PUBLIC RECORD OFFICE
།「།། ། ། །
Reference :-
MMC.O. 885
ALLY WITHOUT PERMISSION OF THE BE REPRODUCED PHOTOGRAPHIC- COPYRIGHT PHOTOGRAPH-NOT TO
PUBLIC RECORD OFFICE, LONDON