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30. Pages 74 and 75, paragraph 7.-It should be made quite clear that no action is to be taken in the matter of laying submarine mines "without competent naval approval, whenever such is available," being obtained. The reference to the Senior Naval Officer (p. 75, line 8) on the 5th day of preparation as to the laying out of the electro contact mines of the main defence is not sufficient, as by this time the work laid down for the preceding day would already have created a serious obstruction to free traffic.

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31. Page 77, (a.) Personnel; page 78, Table F (VII).It is proposed in the Scheme to establish a field telephone station at Chain Lakes, and it is stated that "it may become necessary to obtain stores to equip four other similar field telephone stations." These stations would presumably be at tactical points away from the permanent defence works, but it is not very clear whether they are provided for in the list of personnel and stores required to complete the existing military telephone and signalling system on mobilization, though this would appear to be the case. In any event, if the stores are required, those of them not procurable locally should be obtained from England now, and a separate communication should be addressed to the War Office on the subject.

32. Page 79, 3rd paragraph.—In the event of war with the United States, it would probably be impossible to obtain trained nurses at Halifax from other parts of Canada. It is for consideration whether by promoting classes of instruction and registering the names of ladies who have passed through such classes and are willing to act as nurses in time of war, it would not be possible to obtain the necessary nursing staff from Halifax itself.

33. Page 80, 1st paragraph.-It would be well if the presumption as to temporary accommodation for hospital purposes being found in the permanent buildings of the coast defences were verified, and if the accommodation to be made available for dressing stations at each fort were settled beforehand.

PART V. Harbour Traffic Regulations and Civil Administration.

34. Page 106, paragraph 10 (b).—Recognition signals between Her Majesty's ships and fortresses are in existence, and will be communicated for use in war.

By this means a British war vessel will be readily identified, and there will be no necessity for imposing on her the further restrictions laid down in the Scheme.

August 6, 1897.

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(Signed)

M. NATHAN, Secretary,

Colonial Defence Committee.

PRINTED AT THE FOREIGN OFFICE BY J. W. HARRISON,-9/8/97.

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[This Document is the Property of Her Britannic Majesty's Government of 290 Page 96 of 290

Printed for the use of the Colonial Office. August 16, 1897.

96

SECRET.

No. 167 R.

GIBRALTAR.

266

W.O. No. GIBRALTAR.

Defence Scheme revised to March 1897.

Remarks by the Colonial Defence Committee.

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5, 6, and 9.

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Covering Letter to Military Scheme.

1. Page 3, paragraph 1.—The Colonial Defence Committee concur in the arrange- ment by which the unclimbable fence is made the boundary between sections, except as regards Jews' Cemetery, which, though above the fence, is in No. 2 Section, and Calpe, which, though below the fence, is in No. 3 Section.

2. Page 3, paragraph. 2.-The Chain of Artillery Command printed in the Scheme is correct in showing only the guns actually mounted.

3. Page 3, paragraph 3.-The General points out that the form on which the arrangements for food supply in war are summarized (pp. 34 and 35 of the Scheme), requires alteration, as the heading of column 5 seems to intimate that all the provisions required for the supply of the civil population for four months would be purchased by the War Department in case of war. This is not, at present, the intention at Gibraltar, and the Committee see no objection to the form submitted with the Defence Scheme being altered, as the General may consider desirable, to make it more clearly explain the conditions of the food supply of that Fortress.

It was formerly laid down in the Defence Scheme that the food required for maintaining the civil population, as well as the garrison, during a siege was to be purchased at the outset of war by the authorities of the Fortress and subsequently issued as rations to the inhabitants. The General Commanding, in paragraphs 8 to 10 of his letter dated the 22nd May, 1895, covering the Defence Scheme for that year, pointed out that the Scheme had been altered so as to relieve the Fortress authorities of the care and guarding of the food for the civil inhabitants, and of the necessity for organizing a system of distributing supplies to them. In their Remarks dated the 9th August, 1895, the Colonial Defence Committee concurred in the desirability of the proposed change.

The Committee have since received a new revise of the Defence Scheme for Malta, where the same question has been under consideration, and where the Civil Government has undertaken the task of distributing during a siege the necessary articles of food to the civil inhabitants on payment of money or work done, or, in case of destitution, as a free gift.

The Committee recommend that a copy of the Malta Defence Scheme should be

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