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Printed for the use of the Colonial Office. March 10, 1896.

SECRET.

No. 136. R.

NATAL

C.O. No. 1001.

Defence Scheme revised to October 1895.

Remarks by the Colonial Defence Committee.

1. THIS Scheme has been drawn up generally on the lines indicated in the Colonial Defence Committee's Memorandum No. 19, dated the 1st November, 1886, which was communicated to the Colony in the Colonial Office despatch of the 18th November of that year. It contains much useful information, but the arrangements based thereon are not of sufficiently detailed a nature to take full advantage of the considerable addition that has been made to the defence resources of the Colony in the last ten years, and of the large expenditure which is incurred annually on the defence forces. In 1893–94 this expenditure amounted to 65,6881.

The Committee recommend that the Scheme should now be revised on the lines indicated in their Memorandum No. 46 of the 3rd May, 1893, simplified so as to deal with the special conditions of Natal in a concise and definite manner.

2. Pending the receipt of a Scheme of this nature, the Committee do not propose to further consider the arrangements that have been made for local defence beyond calling attention to the necessity for providing additional accommodation for ammunition in the Bluff Battery. In the designs prepared in the War Office for that work and for Back Beach Battery accom- modation was arranged in the works for the 200 rounds issued with each gun, and care was taken to insure the safety of the cartridge stores by arranging their entrances to fulfil magazine conditions. The record plans received from the station show that, in execution, accommodation has only been provided at the Bluff Battery for about 120 rounds per gun, and that the entrances to the cartridge stores in both batteries are insecure.

The Committee recommend that the War Office be asked to revise the designs, so as to do away with these defects.

March 7, 1896.

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(Signed)

M. NATHAN, Secretary,

Colonial Defence Committee.

PRINTED AT THE FORBIGN OFFICE BY T. HARRISON.—10/3/96.

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