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1894, and by the Joint Naval and Military Committee on Defence, on the 15th November, 1894. Any alterations involved by the remarks of these Committees should now be embodied in the Defence Scheme.

8. Page 8, paragraph (c) 1.-The Colonial Defence Committee cannot concur in the recommendation of the Local Defence Committee that nine Medical Officers, and four N.C.O's and twenty men of the Medical Staff Corps, should be sent out from England on war breaking out. They consider generally that little reliance can be placed on assistance to be sent from England to foreign stations at such a time, and that this objection is specially appli- cable to Mauritius, on account of its distance and its liability to early attack.

With regard to Medical Officers they note the difficulties on p. 74 of the Scheme in the employment of civilian doctors, especially in the case of hostilities with France, but they cannot conceive that out of the seventy medical practitioners stated (p. 76) to be in the island, an adequate number to meet the requirements shown in the Table on pp. 77 and 78 could not be found sufficiently alive to the dictates of humanity to treat to the best of their ability sick and wounded men. The matter should form the subject of further local inquiry with a view to the selection in time of peace of the most suitable doctors.

With regard to hospital attendants, it is thought that the objections to the employment of civilians, detailed in the first paragraph on p. 75 of the Scheme, might also be overcome if the matter were further considered locally with a view to the selection of trustworthy men in time of peace.

9. Page 8, paragraph (c) 2.—The Colonial Defence Committee cannot concur in the recommendation of the Local Defence Committee in this para- graph, and on p. 32 of the Scheme that six "Special Service" Officers, qualified as Staff Officers, should be sent out from England on the outbreak of war. It is unlikely that, if then dispatched, they would arrive in time to be of use.

If the garrison at Mauritius is permanently increased it will be for the consideration of the War Office whether a second Staff Officer cannot be always stationed in the Colony.

Defence Scheme.

Chapter I.

10. The Colonial Defence Committee concur generally in the views of the General Officer Commanding with regard to the strategic conditions of the station as detailed in this Chapter. The insufficiency of the garrison urged under the headings of "Garrison of Mauritius," p. 19, and "Weak Points in the Defence," p. 24, forms the subject of a separate Memorandum by the Committee.

Chapter II.

11. Page 31.-The sectional organization detailed under the heading "Divisions of Command" is marred by the proposals (a) to leave the direction of the movable armament to the Officer Commanding the Troops, and (b) to place the Submarine Mining Company directly under the orders of the Commanding Royal Engineer, except in the case of an attack on the harbour, and, further, by the arrangement by which the R.E. are always to remain under the Commanding Royal Engineer. The general arrange- ment appears to be that No. I Section should comprise the defences against an attack from the sea, and No. II those against an attack by a force landed beyond the range of the coast batteries, while No. III Section comprises the Curepipe district with the troops in it. The Colonial Defence Committee concur in this organization, but consider that it should be carried out completely, the Submarine Mining Company passing on mobilization at once under the command of the Officer Commanding Section I, and the movable armament artillery and the remainder of the R.E. under the Officer Com-

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