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Volunteers, and to the admirable working of the search-lights, in which the Royal Engineers were assisted by the Volunteer Engineer Company, who are stated to be familiar with this work.

In the same Report the General Officer Commanding describes also a tactical exercise which took place on the 9th December, the object being to repel the attack of an enemy's force attempting to land on the south or west shores of the island. No. III (the Peak) Section, to which the Hong Kong Volunteer Corps is allotted, was mobilized, and the Volunteers are stated to have "mustered well and evinced the utmost keenness in the proceedings."

The Colonial Defence Committee note with satisfaction that on these occasions the members of the corps availed themselves of the facilities which the General Officer Commanding afforded them of acting in conjunction with the Regular troops at times convenient to the Volunteers. The Committee called attention to this subject in their Memorandum, No. 195 M, dated the 28th October, 1899, on last year's Report, and they trust that in future years similar combined operations will be of regular occurrence.

5. As regards the armament of the artillery portion of the corps, effect has been given to recommendations contained in the Colonial Defence Committee's Memo- randum, No. 193 M, dated the 8th September, 1899, and 6-2.5-inch R.M.L. guns belonging to the movable armament of the station have as a temporary measure been issued to the Hong Kong Volunteer Corps. The Committee adhere to the opinion expressed in that Memorandum as to the inadvisability of the purchase by the Colonies of armament of patterns other than those in charge of the Royal Artillery. They have elsewhere directed the attention of the War Office to the necessity for expediting the revision of the movable armaments of the Imperial coaling stations, and they understand that this revision will involve the adoption of a pattern of gun more suitable to such conditions as obtain in Hong Kong than the R.M.L. guns now allotted to its movable armament.

6. The conversion of the 12-45-inch Maxim guns belonging to the corps to

·303-inch was recommended by the Colonial Defence Committee in their Memo- randum, No. 193 M, dated the 8th September, 1899, and the Committee are informed that, owing to the urgency of the case, six new 303-inch Maxim guns were dispatched to the Colony on the 6th July, 1900, to replace the six 45-inch guns which had been received thence, and that six more 303-inch guns are now being sent.

7. The issue of 303-inch small-arms to the corps has on several occasions been advocated by the Committee, and has now been carried into effect.

The following point, in connection with equipment, is raised by the General Officer Commanding in the Report dated the 24th April, 1900, already referred to :---

"The machine-gun detachments had no slings to their carbines, and were much hampered in manning the drag ropes by having to carry the carbine in one hand."

This deficiency, which was probably a temporary one, will doubtless be remedied in due course.

8. In paragraph 50 of his Report, the Commandant requests "that the Chief Ordnance Officer, China, may be asked to keep up a supply of 2.5-inch R.M.L. gun and ⚫303-inch cordite small-arm ammunition for the use of the corps, to be indented for as required on repayment."

The question of the supply of small-arm ammunition for Colonial troops at Imperial fortresses and coaling stations formed the subject of the Colonial Defence Committee's Memorandum, No. 221 M, dated the 12th June, 1900, in which they pointed out that the issue on repayment of gun and small-arm ammunition to Colonial Volunteer Corps will, under a recent addition to paragraph 986 of the Regulations for Army Ordnance Services, be brought within the competence of the General Officer Commanding. The Committee in the same Memorandum dealt with the important question of the reserves of small-arm ammunition held by Colonial troops, and recommended that a copy of the Memorandum should be forwarded to the Governor of Hong Kong.

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