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57/HK/1066

34. Page 68, Table H (i).-Owing to the full use of available buildings in the present revision of the Defence Scheme, a large reduction has been effected in the quantities of ordnance stores required on mobilization, and a considerable simplifica- tion results. The Colonial Defence Committee understand that the question of the reduction in the reserves maintained at the station under authority W.O. No. 57/Hong 105 Kong/663, dated the 21st April, 1902, is being taken up by the War Office.* ave asked to Submit recus.

which states that

*

Chapter IV.-Instructions to Section Commanders.

35. Pages 83 to 89.-The recent reduction in the number of sectional commands, and the decentralization of responsibility for the custody of copies of Defence Schemes in the hands of military officers at Hong Kong from the War Office to the General Officer Commanding the Troops, have led the Colonial Defence Committee to reconsider the contents of Chapter IV, "Instructions to Section Commanders.” The Committee have hitherto assumed that the instructions in Chapter IV should be sufficiently detailed to place a section commander in possession of all necessary information, although he may not have had previous access to a copy of the complete Defence Scheme (cf. paragraph 30 of Remarks No. 247 R on the 1900 Defence Scheme).

The Colonial Defence Committee now recommend that five additional copies of future revisions of the Defence Scheme should be furnished to the General Officer Commanding with a view to placing each section commander and officer commanding a reserve in permanent possession of the whole Defence Scheme. This will enable each of these officers to appreciate the relation between the responsibilities assigned to him and those allotted to neighbouring section commanders in their bearing on the combined defence.

One effect of this arrangement will be to dispense with the necessity for giving detailed extracts in Chapter IV from the tables in the earlier chapters of the Scheme. It would, in fact, be possible to deduce from those earlier chapters alone most of the duties of section commanders. As, however, this would not be easy for an officer on whom a section command might unexpectedly devolve, it would seem desirable to retain in Chapter IV some such skeleton instructions as those now contained in Chapter IV (i), a few references being added to the various detailed tables in the earlier part of the Scheme. These instructions will serve to summarize the duties devolving on the section commanders on assuming command, and also to supply a key to the earlier portions of the Scheme which specially concern them. It would of course be open to the section commanders to prepare in manuscript any extracts, or more detailed lists of accommodation, &c., which they may deem useful, to be guarded with their copies of the Defence Scheme.

In Chapter IV, also, instructions to the Officers Commanding the Reserves seem

necessary.

Chapter V-Orders to Corps as to Procedure on Mobilization.

36. Pages 91 to 98.-The arrangements for providing a guard from one of the infantry battalions to assist the dock authorities in the protection of the Kowloon Docks, which were contained in Chapter V of the 1903 Defence Scheme, and were originally recommended in paragraph 5 of the Committee's Remarks No. 247 Ron the 1900 Defence Scheme, have disappeared from the present revision. This require- ment should be borne in mind in compiling the new Tables B (i) and (ii) and in revising Chapter V.

The reference to Table H (ii) at page 91, paragraph 2, and elsewhere in these draft regimental orders would be unintelligible to the recipients of the orders, who would not be in possession of the Defence Scheme.

Chapter VI.—Civil Administration and Harbour Traffic Regulations.

37. Page 99. Proclamations.—The Colonial Defence Committee suggest for the consideration of the present Governor that Proclamation III might be reworded with advantage. The warning as to the possibility of bombardment in the absence of our fleet, though tempered by assurances that the effects would fall short of expectation, and that all necessary hospital arrangements had been made, might convey an unduly

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