As you will have learned through the meditim of Reuter, an expeditionary force isbaing dispatched from India for service in North China, Two of the infantry regiments detailed, however, are to do garrison work in Hongkong. I suppose this means permanent reinforcement to the garrison of this Colony. Hitherto the garrison maintained has been quite out of all proportion to its effective defence, but presumably it has at length dawned upon the War Office that with a populous centre like Canton close at hand, and possible disturbances in British Territory caused by the so-called Boxers, the garrison might not suffice for the protection of the Gulony, much fess admit of the detachment column for service in other ports or places threatened by an enemy. This reinforcement isa step in the right direction, but it is only a step. The garrison should at least be equal to that of the Rock.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.