CAB9-1_PT1 — Page 297

Printed for the use of the Colonial Office. April 9, 1895.

SECRET.

107-R

VICTORIA.

Page 297

VICTORIA.

No. 22334.

Scheme of Defence as revised to September 1894.

Remarks by Colonial Defence Committee.

THE Colonial Defence Committee have had before them the Annual Report on the Scheme of Defence for the Colony of Victoria for the year 1894, and a letter of the Governor, dated the 1st December, 1894, inclosing a Memorandum by the Minister of Defence respecting local floating defences.

1. As regards the military forces, the Committee note that no alteration has been made during the past year in the Scheme of Defence beyond a proposal to increase the number of men for laying out the submarine mine defence. As the Scheme in its entirety has not been seen by the Committee since 1889, they would be glad if, on the occasion of the next annual revision, the complete Scheme, as it will then stand, could be sent home.

The sets of excellent maps referred to by the Commandant have been received, and will be of great use.

2. As regards the naval forces, the Committee note the proposed with- drawal of the armed barges from Pope's Eye Shoal. They are glad to be assured that the position of the vessels in the West and South Channels is not arbitrarily fixed, and that the intention is to employ them very much in the manner recommended by the Committee in their remarks of June 1894.

3. In those remarks the Committee recorded their opinion that, at Port Phillip, the best method of employing the local naval force was to keep it well in hand, and stationed where it has enough clear water to manoeuvre freely in, with a view to encounter vessels that might succeed in forcing their way into the inner waters of the harbour, and not to place it in the line of artillery defence, where it might interfere with the field of fire of the shore guns; that thus the most useful effect would be obtained from it. Beyond that they did not go in that particular paper, which was intended for the direct consideration of the Colony.

At the same time they took the opportunity to raise as a general question, in a second paper of the same date, but addressed to the Secretaries of State and the Lords Commissioners of the Admiralty, the consideration of the extent to which the possession of floating defences regarded as substitutes for, or auxiliaries to, shore batteries adds to the strength of a place. This had reference to other ports besides Melbourne, and had more special reference to harbour defence armour-clads, such as the "Cerberus" at Melbourne, and the "Abyssinia" and " Magdala " at Bombay, which several stations had quoted as examples for imitation. The conclusion arrived at was that it is generally difficult to obtain from such floating harbour defences an effect commensurate with the outlay entailed by them.

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