CAB11-57-1 — Page 211

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Chapter II-Organization.

9. Page 9. List of Staff-The Chief Staff Officer should be mentioned. Chapter III (B), now entitled "Action by D.A.A.G.," describes duties appertaining to the Chief Staff Officer as well as those of the Deputy-Assistant Adjutant-General; but as the Deputy-Assistant Quartermaster-General might be Chief Staff Officer, it is desirable that these duties should be distinguished. Chapter III (C), "Action by D.A.Q.M.G.," as it stands comprises intelligence duties only. It should include all action appertaining to the D.A.Q.M.G.

The Chief Ordnance Officer has been omitted from the list of staff.

10. Page 9. Sectional Organization.-The organization here shown is in six sections, but in a letter dated the 24th March, 1903, the General Officer Commanding proposed a reduction in the number of sections to four, adding-

"This reduction, which has been made possible by the military roads now in hand on the hills of Hong Kong, will enable me to considerably simplify my defence scheme, especially by detailing whole units to sections of defence.

"It also brings the defence of each entrance of the harbour under one head, and relieves the officers in charge of these sections of the responsibility of watching more than their immediate flanks, so that they can give their whole attention to the defence of the water area under their control. Further, by bringing the defences of Stonecutters and the Belcher batteries under one head a unity of control is established at the western entrance.

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I have, therefore, after careful consideration, decided to adopt this division as the basis of the defence scheme for this fortress, and I now request that the telephone system may be brought into accord with it."

The War Office replied (No. Hong Kong 5/757 (I.G.F. 1), dated the 29th May, 1903) that these proposals could not be dealt with until the revised scheme of defence then awaited had been considered, and added that the small sum available for the command communications might be allocated to any portion common to both projects.

In paragraph 4 of their Remarks, No. 113 R, on the 1894 Defence Scheme, the Colonial Defence Committee questioned the necessity of the minute sub-division into twelve sections which then existed, and added: "It is suggested that the troops should be redistributed in three or four sections. In making this distribution, the artillery chain of command should be borne in mind." In their Remarks, No. 138 R, dated the 2nd April, 1896, the Committee concurred in a redistribution of the defence by Major-General Black "into six sections, marked out by nature as separate commands,' but they much prefer an organization into four sections, and they recommend that the redistribution of commands and troops should now be worked out locally, and embodied in the Defence Scheme, and that the detailed proposals for command communications should be considered by the War Office.

11. Pages 14 to 21.-Chapter II (C), (ii.), should describe briefly the means of com- municating orders and intelligence.

Its contents should, as indicated in paragraph 22 of the Colonial Defence Committee's Remarks, No. 282 R, on the 1901 Defence Scheme, take the form of concise sub-sections devoted respectively to the ship-signalling stations (site, per- sonnel, and equipment), the military command and administrative telephone systems, the local telephone systems, the use of military flag signalling, and the Chinese runner organization. The present contents deal largely with the responsibilities of the D.A.Q.M.G., the D.O. Telephones, the Harbour-Master, and the Superintendent of Police: the duties of these officers should be dealt with instead in the appropriate sections of Chapters III and VI.

12. Page 14, paragraph (a), 3 (ii).—The description of the ship-signalling stations given in paragraph 3 (ii) is as follows:-

"The system of ship-signalling stations, which consists partly of a telegraph line to Gap Rock and partly of telephone lines to Waglan Rocks, Cape D'Aguilar, and Green Island, and which are in communication, through the joint telegraph's Company's office with the Harbour Office and the Central Police Exchange."

The information required in this paragraph is what, if any, ship-signalling stations (such as Lloyds') are engaged in peace at Hong Kong in looking out for, and

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