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Appendix No. 9.

NETHERLANDS.

batteries, this no doubt includes the modernizing of Fort Calimas, but whether any other batteries have been erected, as, for instance, to renew the old disused batteries at the castern river mouth, is not known. The whole question of the defences of Soerabaia is under consideration, and is bound up with the proposed improvements in the channels.

Soerabaia town, the citadel of which on the north side is distant about 1 miles from the canal mouth, was formerly classed as a first-class fortress, and surrounded by a bastioned trace and ditches; the enceinte was declared unnecessary in 1870 and was gradually. removed and demolished, but no doubt, as in other cases, the ditch remains as a channel more or less available; at the same time the citidal was placed in the third class pending a definite classification; this citadel was strong in the old- fashioned sense, and the solidity of its casemates was tested by what the Dutch writers consider an unnecessarily severe trial of actual cannonade from its own guns; the foundations did not give under the concussion; the fort was made to contain 1,500 men, but could be defended by 1,000.

In the old channel on the Madura side of the Eastgat there is the remains of a sunken fort, and along the Java shore eastward there appears to have been a Fort Daendels in connection with what are called Daendels Stone Dams, the object of which appears to have been to narrow the available channel for vessels, but we have no accurate details of them. There is no complete system of defence for Soerabaia; what strength it has is principally in the intricacy of its channel and the possibility of utilizing inundations.

Infantry.-The 13th Field Battalion.

Garrison.

Schutterij 208 Europeans, 166 natives.

[NOTE--There are also at Pasoeroean Schutterij of 40 Europeans, 175 natives; and also on the Island of Madura the Barissans, the best native troops of Java, 2,300 men of all arms.]

Cavalry-The 4th Field Squadron.

Artillery.-No. 3 Company Mountain Battery; No. 16 Company Fortress.

Naval Guard.-Curação of 10 guns; two armed cutters.

The large number of employés in the yards, &c., must be taken into consideration in estimating the defensive force of Soerabaia.

As has been already stated, the whole question of the defence of Soerabaia is bound up with the measures which are in course of adoption for the improvement of the harbour, and details must entirely depend upon the form which these take, but there are a few general considerations which may be discussed.

In the first place, what we have said of the troops available for the support of Samarang holds equally true of Soerabaia; they are merely at different ends of the same railway system, at present broken, but in course of completion.

But the proposed treatment of Soerabaia is, on account of the value of its dock-yard and work- shops, somewhat different from that suggested for the other ports; in their case a small delaying garrison is proposed, with a field army outside, the ultimate abandonment of the works and removal or destruction of stores, without a great siege being accepted as inevitable, and a part of the general scheme; but in the case of Soerabaia, experts propose a determined defence and large garrison, one writer as much as 4,000 men of the regular army. Soerabaia is, however, in no sense of the word a fortress, and must depend on extemporized field works and inundations.

Soerabaia may be assailed in five ways, which are, of course, susceptible of many combinations or variations -

1. By sea from the westward.

2. By sea from the eastward.

3. By a landing on Madura.

4. By a landing westward.

5. By a landing eastward.

Either of the two first methods of attack must be acknowledged to be a formidable undertaking, even to a fleet well supplied with low-draught monitors carrying formidable guns.

In the Westgat, at the present time, 15 to 16 feet of water is probably the greatest available depth; in the Eastgat a few feet more, but the banks are continually shifting, and require the daily study of skilled pilots, assisted by buoys.

We know very little of the torpedo measures proposed or available, but torpedoes of some kind would doubtless be placed in the narrow and intricate channels; there are, it is true, no forts of modern construction to support these obstacles, but in the deeper waters behind the bars, the iron- clads and numerous fleet of low-draught steamers, with rifled guns, could no doubt select their water according to their draught so as to occupy a much broader front than any assailant could obtain in making the attack.

The sinking of stone barges in the channels is an obvious expedient, but its effect would be so rapidly destructive of all movement, that it seems rather a device suited for the assailant than the defender, and then only as a desperate necessity, involving possibly the permanent destruction of the harbour.

3. If a landing were effected on some part of the Island of Madura, which would be best accom- plished on the south side, as there still water could be insured, a march of greater or less length would bring the force opposite to Soerabaia at a point where the strait is less than 2 miles in width; from this point the dock-yard could be set on fire by modern rifled guns, as well as portions of the town with its workshops and inagazines (for including the suburbs, the most distant point is not more than 4 or 5 miles from the northern shore of the strait).

There are no batteries or works on the north side, and the only works at present on Madura are the fourth-class forts at Bangkalang, 10 miles north, inside the Westgat, and at Soemanap, 80 or 90 miles east. But a force of considerable strength would be required to reach the point in question.

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