CAB9-1_PT1 — Page 400

SECRET.

No. 144 R.

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премествае (for recortage 400 of 425

Printed for the use of the Colonial Office. July 1, 1896.

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C.O. No. 6801.

CAPE OF GOOD HOPE.

Further Report of Local Joint Naval and Military Committee, February, 1896.

Remarks by the Colonial Defence Committee.

THE Colonial Defence Committee concur in the Report of the Local Joint Naval and Military Committee as now amended with certain exceptions noted in the following paragraphs :--

2. Quick-firing guns.-The Local Committee (pp. 4 and 5, paragraph 8) propose the immediate provision of four 12-pr. Q.F. guns on fixed mountings for the defence of the inner harbour at Table Buy.

The Colonial Defence Committee in paragraph 5 of their Remarks, dated the 11th December, 1894, on the Report of the Local Committee of June of that year, considered that the end of the west breakwater offered a good site for two light Q.F. guns, for which, however, no special provision seemed necessary as they would be supplied by the existing movable armament.

In view of the small distance between the piers at the entrance to the inner harbour-100 yards, and to the fact that only 2nd class torpedo- boats are to be guarded against, the Colonial Defence Committee, after careful reconsideration of the matter, recommend that two 6-pr. Q.F. guns should be provided on fixed mountings at the end of each pier. This, together with the proposed boom, will, they think, adequately provide for the defence of the inner harbour against torpedo-boat attack.

3. The Local Committee propose also (p. 5, paragraph 5) for Simon's Bay four 12-pr. Q.F. guns on fixed mountings, two on the hillock close to the Round Tower on Block-house Point, and two in a battery near Simon's Town Railway Station, to fire on hostile torpedo-boats that have passed the line joining Block-house Point and Lower North Battery.

It does not appear to the Colonial Defence Committee that light Q.F. guns can be of much avail against torpedo-boat attack in the case of an open roadstead like Simon's Bay, where it is not possible to withdraw shipping behind a defended line; ships of war at anchor in the Bay will have to depend on their own quick-firing armaments.

4. Machine-guns.-The Local Committee propose two Maxim guns on tripod mountings to assist in the defence of the entrance to the inner harbour at Table Bay, and two similar guns for the defence of the dockyard at Simon's Bay, the four to be in addition to the eighteen machine-guns for general defence already approved.

The Colonial Defence Committee do not consider that special provision of machine-guns for these purposes is necessary. They understand that the general machine-gun armament for Table Bay and Simon's Bay is now under consideration of the War Office.

5. Electric Lights.-The Local Committee propose for Simon's Bay (p. 5, paragraph 6) two electric light installations, one to the south-east of Block-house Point, and one a little to the north of Lower North Battery.

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