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7. Pages 15 and 16, Table B (i), Artillery Garrison.-With regard to the distribution of artillery officers, it is observed that five officers are allotted to Port Royal Batteries, one being the Inspector of Ordnance Machinery, while according to the approved chain of artillery command, if each Gun Group Commander is an officer (which is not, however, absolutely necessary), seven would be required, viz.: 1 Fire Commander, 1 Battery Commander, 3 Gun Group Commanders, and an officer each for the Q.-F. battery, and the 2:5-inch R.M.L. guns. For Rocky Point three officers are told off in the Scheme; the chain of command shows only two be required, viz.: 1 Battery Com- mander and 1 Gun Group Commander. For Apostles' Battery two are told off, but one Gun Group Commander, acting as Battery Commander, only is necessary.

For the four 2.5-inch R.M.L. guns with the mobile force, and the two 7-prs. at Quarry Fort, no officers are detailed. It is, perhaps, intended that they should be commanded by officers of the West India Regiment, who, it is understood, are trained in artillery duties; but if this is the fact, some indication of it should appear in the Scheme.

The 1 officer and 19 men of the Spanish Town Artillery Militia seem wasted at Spanish Town, where there is no artillery armament of any sort, and where the duties to which they are told off (see p. 54) would, if necessary at all, be better performed by infantry.

The 7-inch R.M.L. gun, shown in Table (B), at Kingston, and referred to on pp. 53 and 54, is not included in the approved chain of artillery command, nor indeed, in the approved armament of the station. It appears to be a drill gun, and should not be utilized for defence purposes.

8. Pages 15 and 16, Table B (i), Infantry Garrison.-From paragraph 6 of the present Remarks, dealing with "Divisions of Command," it will be seen that the Committee consider greater concentration of the infantry defence to be desirable. If the arrangements they have suggested above be adopted, and forces of about 200 men are told off to the Port Royal and Fort Clarence detachments, and of 100 men to the neighbourhood of Quarry Fort, there will still remain about 800 infantry at the General's disposal. If this force is kept together, so that the whole, or nearly the whole, of it can be brought against an enemy who has effected a landing, it will much more effectually defend the island than if it is broken up in the manner proposed in the Scheme. There seems to be no special advantage in separating the mobile force and the reserve; they might be combined as a Field Force, though there is no objection to organizing transport so that a part of the force can move on an emergency to a distance from the head-quarters. Nor is any special advantage derived from troops being stationed at the outbreak of war at Newcastle or Stony Hill, as, if an enemy landed on the north of the island these points could be reached from Up Park Camp long before an enemy could arrive at them. There seems to be no necessity to detail two small detachments to Old Harbour and Spanish Town. From p. 53, paragraph 2, and p. 54, paragraph 7, it appears that the rôle of these detachments is to retard an advance from Old Harbour, 24 miles from Kingston. No enemy would land, except in considerable numbers, at such a distance from his objective, and against considerable numbers an advanced post of 10 men, supported by 19 more 12 miles in their rear, could effect nothing. As a matter of fact it is probably the intention of the General Officer Commanding that the detachments told off to Newcastle, Stony Hill, Spanish Town and Old Harbour should merely watch for and report any advance of an enemy that had landed at a distance from Kingston. For this purpose it should not be necessary to expend any of the fighting force of the island; but the civil authorities and police should be utilized, and careful arrangements should be made to this end and entered in the Scheme.

CHAPTER III.-Action by Staff and Departments.

9. Page 23 (4).-The notification that will be sent to the Governor instructing him to put the Defence Scheme partially or wholly into force will be in the form com- municated in Lord Knutsford's Circular despatch dated the 2nd July, 1891, and a specific reference to this despatch should be made under the heading "General Review of Measures to be taken" to insure the simple code laid down in the Circular being understood and acted on immediately on its receipt.

The Defence Scheme should also lay down the action to be taken, on receipt of the above notification, in accordance with Clause 2, Section 189, of the Army Act, with

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