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9. Page 15 (C), paragraph 1.-The Colonial Defence Committee concur in the recommendations of the Local Defence Committee with regard to improvements in road and telephone communications, and recommend that these also should be brought to the notice of the Colonial Government for provision of the necessary funds to carry out the work. The Artillery com- munications referred to in paragraph 11 of these Remarks should also be provided if they do not already exist.

10. Page 19.-Under the heading "General Review of Measures to be taken," a specific reference should be made to the notification that will be sent to the Governor instructing him to put the Defence Scheme partially or wholly into force. The notification will be in the form communicated in Lord Knutsford's Circular despatch dated the 2nd July, 1891, and it is of vital importance that the simple code laid down in the Circular should be understood and acted on immediately on its receipt.

The Defence Scheme should also lay down the action to be taken on receipt of above notification, in accordance with clause 2, section 189, of the Army Act, with regard to making the forces in the Colony temporarily subject to that Act as if they were on active service.

11. Page 21 (D).-The Artillery chain of Command and Artillery Manning Table should be given under the heading, "Action by Officer Commanding Artillery." This officer, who is Commander of the Naval Volunteers, will be a Fire Commander, and should be stationed at the Bluff Battery, with com- munications to the Commandant Durban Defences at the Point Signal- Station, and to a Battery Commander at Back Beach Battery. The latter officer should act as Fire Commander for the water area not seen from, or outside the fire area of, the Bluff Battery, under general directions from the Fire Commander stationed at that work.

12. Page 21 (E), paragraph 1.—The field-gun emplacements referred to under the heading "Action by Commanding Royal Engineer" would, according to the Scheme as it now stands (vide pp. 25 to 27), be carried out under the Section Commanders with the troops in their command, and according to the non-sectional organization suggested in paragraph 6 of these Remarks by the Officers commanding units or detachments with their own men. As these emplacements are the only engineer works now proposed in the Scheme, and as they cannot be supervised by the Commanding Royal Engineer on the Staff of the G.O.C. at Pietermaritzburg, it is thought that the whole of the "action by Commanding Royal Engineer

might be omitted from this part of the Scheme, the information contained in paragraph 3, p. 22, being transferred to Chapter II (C), where it more properly belongs.

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When the proposed electric light installations have been provided, it will be for the consideration of the Colonial Government whether a section of Volunteer Engineers might not advantageously be raised, mainly from employés in the telegraph department, to work lights and military electrical communications, and to carry out any necessary field-works under their Com- manding Officer, who would be in the position of Commanding Engineer on the Staff of the Commandant Durban defences.

With regard to the proposed emplacements for field guns, it should be borne in mind that if by reason of their background or otherwise they can easily be seen from the sea the men and guns behind them will be in a worse position than if no cover had been provided.

13. Pages 21 and 22, (E), paragraph 2.-The Local Committee strongly recommend "that search-lights should be fixed, one on or near the break- water, and another on or near the north wall."

In their Remarks dated the 20th April, 1894, on the Report of the Local Joint Naval and Military Committee of December 1893, the Colonial Defence Committee recommended a single installation below the bluff near the inner end of the South Breakwater, with two beams, one of 30° divergence to illumine the entrance to the harbour and the field of fire of the Q.-F. guns, and the other a concentrated beam capable of being traversed to follow a vessel coming into the outer anchorage.

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