Apr. 4 To-pay happens to be the sixty-ninth anniversary of Muddy Flat (April 4, 1854), and being an all important date in the history of our local defence forces we may take the opportunity to do two things. In the first place we would add our welcome to that which Colonel Gordon, the new Commandant of the Shanghai Volunteer Corps, has already received from the community during the past fortnight and to trust that his period of office here will be as successful and congenial as was that of his predecessor. In the second the occasion may be utilized to deal with Volunteer matters generally. Only a-fortnight or so has elapsed since the publication of the annual report by the late Commandant, and while he was able to compliment certain units on an increase in strength and efficiency he had to deplore that among some of the others the desired numbers are still lacking and the keenness of the rank and file is not all that it ought to be. This, unhappily, is no new complaint; it has been mentioned from time to time during the past three years; but efforts made to repair the fault seem to have met with very little success. Now, curiously enough, remarks bearing on the same subject have just been made by Major-General Sir John Fowler—on the occasion of his annual inspection of the Hongkong Volunteer Defence Corps. A large proportion of members of the Corps, said General Fowler, are older men who have been for some years, all credit to them: but the great bulk of the younger men who come out to the Colony are not joining the Corps. in the numbers that they should.
Between the Hongkong Volunteer Defence Corps and the Shanghai Volunteer Corps a very considerable disparity in numbers exists. Our cosmopolitan force in Shanghai aggregates, including reserves, some 1,400 men, whereas in Hongkong the Corps has only just over 300 effectives. We must, however, remember that Hongkong -is a much smaller place than Shanghai, and we take it that its defence corps is purely British, meaning that many of the people we draw upon here are not available in the Colony. In these circumstances the difference in numbers becomes
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.