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3,500* men the General Commanding considered he was not in a position to defend against an attacking force of 10,000 troops the lines which it is now proposed to occupy with a battalion of infantry and some mountain guns.

The Colonial Defence Committee do not consider it necessary to again repeat the reasons which render it indispensable to retain Mauritius as a coaling station and to prevent it from falling even for a short time into the hands of our possible enemy. For these reasons over 100,000l. have been spent on new works and armaments in the last ten years.

There is another aspect of the question which is prominently brought forward in the following extract from a letter of the Governor of Mauritius, dated the 2nd November, 1894, which is printed in the Appendix to the Defence Scheme:-

Mauritius is a French Colony under British rule, yearly fed for the last forty years by a constant flow of emigrants from France, and possessing an actual number of non- naturalized Frenchmen five times more numerous than pure English residents, so that in case of war, or imminence of war, and setting aside the old-established Mauritians, there would be, at the very outset, a nucleus of hostile Frenchmen in our midst twice more numerous than the English residents and the troops put together, and five times more numerous than the English residents without counting the troops.

According to the last Census there were in the island 413 English against 2,079 French. The bulk of the population consisted of 255,920 natives of India indifferent as to who governs the island; of the remainder, about 60,000 were coloured people, who it is considered would at best be treacherous friends, and 30,000 were creoles, descendants of old French families whose sympathies in a war with France would be entirely with our enemies.

To maintain an inadequate garrison in the midst of such a population would be to court disaster and to make a useless sacrifice of men in time of war for a small economy of money in time of peace.

3. The letter of the Governor which has been quoted above deals mainly with a matter which is quite apart from the question of the garrison, but is, in the opinion of the Colonial Defence Committee, one requiring early and definite decision, viz., the action which should be taken to enable the civil and military authorities to exercise in time of war, anticipated war, or rebellion, powers with regard to the civil population in excess of those granted by the existing laws of the Colony.

This matter has recently been before the Colonial Defence Committee in the case of other Colonies, but the peculiar conditions of the population of Mauritius makes its early settlement there of the most pressing importance.

The powers required may be summed up as follows:-

(1.) Powers to enter and occupy lands and buildings required in connec- tion with military operations, and to erect works on such lands and destroy such buildings.

(2.) Powers to requisition such material, transport, and labour as may be required in connection with military operations.

(3.) Powers for enforcing military law on the civil population.

The Governor is of opinion that these extra powers-especially the last- should be framed so as to enable the Governor to act before it is too late, and that it would be too late if he could only act in the presence of a rebellion or of a direct attack.

The Colonial Defence Committee are of the same opinion, and they recommend that a General Act should be prepared on the lines of the Army Act, but drafted specially with a view to its application to civil populations, and that this Act should be passed by the Imperial Parliament, power being given therein to the Governors of the different Colonies in which there are Imperial fortresses or coaling stations to put it in force by Proclamation when the necessity arises.

This is the number quoted by the General Officer Commanding, Mauritius. From James' "Naval History "it would appear that the garrison consisted of some 1,300 regular troops, including 500 Irishmen and 10,000 Militia. It is not known how many of the latter were embodied.

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