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the map sent with that Scheme sufficiently explains the changes in the redis- tribution.
I need bardly say that the garrison has been frequently practised in defending and attacking the various sections of defence.
The other members of the Defence Committee concur with me in the Scheme I now put forward.
I have, &c.
(Signed)
W. BLACK, Major-General.
To his Excellency the
Governor of Hong Kong.
Enclosure (A).
Proposed Emplacement for two 6-inch B.L. Guns on Mount Davis.
From the General Officer Commanding in China and Hong Kong to the Secretary, Colonial Defence Committee, London.
Sir,
Head-quarter Office, Hong Kong, January 13, 1896. While fully aware how absurd it would be to erect a battery at every point where an enemy might land, I have the honour to call attention to the exceptionally favourable landing-place at Sandy Bay, less than 14 miles distant from the Belchers group of batteries.
The landing-places on the south shore lead to steep broken hill slopes, or to the circuitous coast road; hence the assumption that an enemy would choose Sandy Bay and its neighbourhood within thrusting distance, over a broad, well-made road, of a vital point of the harbour defences and of Victoria.
No gun bears upon this water, and as the positions for infantry and for our movable armament to defend the landing-places can be swept by a cruiser's guns, it might prove difficult to deny a landing.
There is nothing to prevent in ordinary weather a landing on the shore of Mount Davis just north of Sandy Bay, and a successful push for its summit would enable the landing party to command the Belchers batteries within effective rifle range.
I therefore recommend that two 6-inch B.L. guns, with mountings admitting of great depression, be provided, and that emplacements for them be constructed on the summit of Mount Davis; these guns would sweep the trend of the coast down to the southern point of the island, command the dead water where a cruiser can now circle unharmed while shelling the western suburb over the col or covering a disembarkation, and would immensely strengthen the defence of the western entrance to the harbour.
As Mount Davis is 800 feet above the sea, I submit that no heavy masonry work is necessary, but only sound gun platforms, with cartridge and shell stores made secure from a rush by a sunken unclimable fence flanked by two small tambours or brick block-houses at the opposite angles.
In peace time a caretaker could find quarters in the block-house. Such a work is estimated to cost under 5007., and is, I venture to say, as necessary as the more massive structure recently erected on Sywan Hill above the Lyemun batteries, at a cost of 1,6007.
[337]
I have, &c. (Signed)
W. BLACK, Major-General.
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