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APPENDIX.

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176

Despatch of Governor.

(Confidential.) Sir,

Government House, Hong Kong, July 7, 1905. WITH reference to Mr. May's despatch No. 268, dated the 23rd June, 1904, I have the honour to transmit, for your information, ten copies of the Report on the Hong Kong Volunteer Corps for the year ending the 31st March, 1905, which was forwarded to me through the General Officer Commanding in South China.

2. With regard to Major-General Hatton's minute of the 17th April, I have to inform you that the equipment for the Troop has arrived, and will now be issued, and that the new head- quarters are under construction, and should be completed early in 1906.

3. The total strength of the Corps on the 30th June was 262, against 269 at the date of the Commandant's Report. The slight falling off is usual during the summer months, and will be, I trust, more than made up at the time when most recruits join, that is shortly before the holding of the Annual Camp of Exercise. I have approved of the time for this camp being extended from ten to fifteen days.

The total membership of the Volunteer Reserve Association on the 30th June was 177, an addition of 23 since the date of the Report. There is always a good attendance of members on the range on Saturday afternoons for rifle competitions. The new short rifle is now used

for these.

The number of men from civil departments of the Government who have volunteered for work on the military telephones in war is 47, exclusive of any that are members of the Reserve Association.

The names of 12 private medical practitioners have been registered with their consent for service in the military and naval hospitals in war.

There are thus in all 498 members of the British civil population who have definitely engaged to assist His Majesty's forces in time of war.

According to the latest detailed census (1901), the British male population over 15 years of age was 1,273.

4. I take this convenient occasion to deal with the Colonial Defence Committee's Remarks No. 364 R, transmitted with your confidential despatch of the 10th March last.

5. The Colonial Defence Committee, in the 5th paragraph of their Remarks, suggest that the training and administration of the various Volunteer corps should gradually be modified in the direction of more closely associating each unit of the corps with its own arm in the regular service for training. They propose that this should be done by placing the instructional courses and the annual inspections of the units under the Officer Commanding Royal Artillery, Com- manding Royal Engineer, and Officer Commanding British Infantry Battalion, who will detail acting adjutants and instructional staff to the units, by arranging for the Annual Camp of the Volunteers to be held in conjunction with regular troops, if possible, at the annual mobilization of the garrison, and by doing away with the appointment of the office of Commandant which is not recognized by the Volunteer Ordinance of 1893, and is not, in the opinion of the Committee, necessary or desirable.

The recommendations of the Colonial Defence Committee have much to recommend them, but as obviously it is undesirable to introduce improvements in training and administration if they will deter men from enrolling themselves to be trained and administered, I thought it advisable before coming to any decision in the matter to submit the proposals confidentially to the officers of the corps for their opinion as to whether their adoption would affect its popularity. I annex a minute, dated the 18th April, by Major A. Chapman, now acting as Commandant, on the result of this submission, from which you will see that the only change which the officers consider might advantageously be effected would be the appointment on the expiration of Major Pritchard's term of employment as Commandant of a suitable and popular civilian to this office, and the further appointment of an adjutant who should be seconded from his regiment and liberally paid. In the face of this opinion, in the grounds for which I concur, I do not propose to make any changes in the system of training and administration at the present time, though I shall endeavour to arrange for more frequent opportunities for the Volunteers to take part in field and mobilization exercises of the regular troops.

6. In the 6th paragraph of the Colonial Defence Committee's Remarks they suggest that in the event of the Volunteer Reserve Association and the Military Telephonist Organization developing, a Volunteer Reserve Ordinance should be passed placing the liabilities and privileges of the members in time of war on a legal basis.

I have given careful consideration to this suggestion and have come to the conclusion that the undertaking given by members of the Volunteer Reserve Association to enrol themselves, in the event of necessity, under the, existing Volunteer Ordinance as the Hong Kong Volunteer Reserve Company is a sufficient guarantee for their services being available in war time, and does provide for their liabilities and privileges being placed at such time on a legal basis. I am considering the advisability of allowing the members of the Prison, Sanitary and Public Works

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