CAB11-57-9 — Page 16

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CHAPTER I

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Probable Objects of Attack.

18. Apart from an attempt to damage the prestige of the Empire, or to capture the place as a base for future operations, by a surprise by one or more cruisers steaming boldly in before the declaration of war, the objects of attack may be held to be the destruction of—

(i.) The docks and naval and military arsenals.

(ii.) The shipping in harbour.

(iii.) The coal stores.

(iv.) The magazines.

(v.) The Brennan torpedo installation.

(vi.) The water supply.

(vii.) The capture of the wealth of the Colony.

(viii.) In the case of the Chinese, the massacre of the white population.

19. In the daytime, the shore-end of the Eastern Extension Telegraph Company's cables landed at Deep Water Bay is completely under our fire from the position at Wong-nei-Cheong Gap, and at night an outpost would be posted in the Telegraph hut.

C An outpost from the Mount Davis Section would, in like manner, guard the shore-end of the cables in Taihowan Bay.

20. The naval establishments, docks (except those at Aberdeen), and coal stores being within the harbour, no special precautions are necessary for their defence, and the docks at Kowloon and Aberdeen, in common with the others, will be protected against? torpedo-boat attack by means of nets, &c.

21. All the magazines are reasonably safe so long as no enemy's ships are in the harbour. The Colonial makeshift powder magazine on Stonecutters Island is a source of danger, but plans are now approved for building a proper magazine on the east corner of the island.

General Outline of Defence.

22. The general plan of defence is as follows:-

(i.) To trust to the batteries, submarine mines, and Brennan torpedo to prevent the entrance of ships into the harbour at either end, and to repel by the same means, aided by infantry, the landing of a force in the neighbourhood of the batteries.

(ii) To hold the central ridge and gaps, and to prevent an enemy who has landed on the south shore from scaling the steep and precipitous slopes leading to the central dominant position.

(iii.) To guard against and repel an attack from the mainland by holding, with well posted infantry detachments and guns of the movable armament, the passes over the hills running across the Kowloon Peninsula.

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