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Inclosure 4 in No. 87.

Questions addressed to his Excellency the Governor and the Principal Military Officers of the Hong Kong Garrison by the Local Confidential Committee on Auxiliary Forces.

viz.:

1. On the assumption that the artillery defences of Hong Kong will soon be about as follows,

North Point Kowloon, East

West

Guns.

4

5

Appendix No. 4.

HONG KONG.

Kellet's Island

Belcher

Green Island

Stonecutter's Island

Total

3

2

5

26

Please state, as far as you can, what you consider should be the strength of the garrison.

Infantry

Artillery

Engineers

Volunteers

Auxiliaries, local

Carriers or transport-

European Native

:::::

Peace.

War.

2. Kindly make any explanatory remarks on the above subject that may occur to you.

Answer of Governor Pope Hennessy.

As this is one of the points on which I shall have to write to Sir Michael Hicks Beach after I have had an opportunity of considering the Report of the Committee and the views of his Excellency the General on the Report, it would be perhaps somewhat premature for me to deal with it at this stage of the inquiry, but I may at once say that I cannot entirely admit the assumption that the twenty-six guns in the positions enumerated will be the permanent artillery defence of this Colony.

Some points of importance appear to be omitted. For instance, the defence of British Kowloon from a shore attack. Such a defence as might be rendered necessary in the event of a war in which China and a European Power, or China alone, might be against us. Again, the scheme omits all reference to the defence of the dock at Aberdeen, the reservoir at Pokfoolum, and the hill passes of the island.

To make this Colony what I think it should be made, the chief British stronghold in the East, and to provide an effective defence in time of war, the total strength of the garrison, including the regular troops and auxiliary forces of all kinds, must, no doubt be considerably increased, and we must endeavour to do this without counting on any addition to the number of Her Majesty's white troops now in Hong Kong.

J. POPE HENNESSY.

(Signed)

December 16, 1879.

No. 88.

Colonial Office to Royal Commission on the Defence of British Possessions and Commerce Abroad. (Confidential.) Sir,

Downing Street, May 10, 1880.

I AM directed by the Earl of Kimberley to transmit to you, to be laid before the Royal Commission on the Defence of British Possessions and Commerce Abroad, printed copies of a despatch from the Governor of Hong Kong inclosing a Report of the local Committee appointed to consider the question of enlistment of auxiliary forces to supplement the regular forces ordinarily maintained in the Colony, together with the Appendices (A) and (B) in original.*

2. I am also to inclose printed copies of a further despatch from Sir John Pope Hennessy, inclosing a copy of a letter addressed by him to Admiral Coote, C.B., on the subject of the Report, together with a copy of Admiral Coote's reply.

3. I am to add that copies of the accompanying printed papers have also been transmitted to the Secretary of State for War and to the Lords Commissioners of the Admiralty.

[1103]

I am, &c.

(Signed)

R. H. MEADE.

* (A) and (B) not printed.

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