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HONG KONG.
CHAPTER I.
CHAPTER I.
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INTRODUCTORY REMARKS AND STRATEGIC CONSIDERATIONS.
Strategic Conditions.
HONG KONG is the naval base and headquarters of His Majesty's ships on the China Station, and the most important British commercial port abroad.
Before considering the strategic conditions which govern the functions and strength of the garrison and fixed defences, it may be useful to enumerate the foreign military forces which could be directed against Hong Kong by a Power which had obtained assured control of sea communications for a period sufficient for the organization and conveyance in transports to Hong Kong of a considerable force.
2. The French garrison in Indo-China consists, in round numbers, of 13,600 Europeans and 15,000 Natives. It is widely scattered in small detachments over an extensive area. It has been calculated, therefore, that the largest force which could be put in the field for offensive purposes could not be more than 5,000 infantry (European and Native), and four mountain batteries. The nearest fortified French base to Hong Kong is Port Courbet, 460 miles distant.
3. Japan has proved her capability of sending a military expedition of over 60,000 men across the seas. She has ample means of transport and good bases.
Nagasaki is 1,070 miles from Hong Kong, whilst the new advanced base, Formosa, is but 350 miles, and Makung, in the Pescadores, where she is forming a naval port, only 310 miles distant. No practicable increase to the garrison of Hong Kong would protect it from Japan, if and while her navy was supreme in Eastern waters.
4. The Russian base, Vladivostock, is 1,560 miles from Hong Kong; but the acquisition by Russia of Port Arthur, a fortified ice-free port, at the extremity of the Liatung Peninsula, has brought her with'n 1,250 miles of Hong Kong.
In passing out of the Gulf of Pechili, her ships would have to pass the British flying naval base of Wei-hai-wei,
The Siberian railway is so far finished that there is direct steam communication from European Russia to Vladivostock and Port Arthur, and at no distant date the line from Harbin to Chita will be completed. Russia, by the aid of the Siberian railway, was able to mobilize some 175,000 men for operations in Manchuria and North China.
The local military strength of a possible combination of France and Russia has thus been recently largely increased, and it would be possible, if their sea communications were secure, for an expeditionary force of at least 10,000 to 15,000 men to be directed against Hong Kong. These numbers are likely to be increased in the near future, when Russia's communications across the continent of Asia have been perfected, and when the facilities for inaritime transport in China seas have been developed.
5. The Chinese have of late shown themselves to be of little account as a fighting Power, and at present their ability to act on the offensive may be taken as small. It will, however, always be prudent to take into consideration the possibility of an attack by China, as, stiffened with a nucleus of troops of one of the great Powers, a Chinese army might become formidable in an attack on the Colony from the land side. Her fleet may for the present be neglected.
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§512-15
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