Colonial Defence Committee

An 1890s depiction of Meade

The Colonial Defence Committee was a standing committee of the British Colonial Office between 1885 and 1904.

Background and establishment

In 1807-71 the government withdrew standing army garrisons from self-governing colonies of the British Empire. This was a key stage in the development of the Empire and removed a significant cost burden from central government. Colonial governments were expected to make their own arrangements to raise forces to carry out internal policing and border defence duties. The move also allowed the British Army to centralise its forces and become more efficient.

The colonial governments were slow and reluctant to raise troops, the costs of which would fall upon colonial taxpayers. The colonies were hampered by the withdrawal of regular troops, which could have acted as models for colonial forces and provided advisers and trainers. Apart from ad hoc advice from Royal Navy officers stationed in adjacent seas or from a small number of officers seconded from the War Office the colonial governments had been left to their own devices.

The British government was concerned that colonial defence was being neglected. This was particularly worrisome during the Russian war scare of 1878-79, which followed Russian victory in the 1877-78 Russo-Turkish War. During the war the Secretary of State for the Colonies Sir Michael Hicks Beach had appointed a special committee to inspect the defences of some key ports in the colonies. They found them deficient, requiring £265,00 of improvements, and only 35-40 suitable cannon in Britain to augment them. After the war ended the committee was disbanded.

After the war Hicks-Beach remained concerned about the defence of the colonies and established the Royal Commission Appointed to Enquire into the Defence of British Possessions and Commerce Abroad under former Secretary of State for the Colonies Lord Carnarvon. The commission found many colonial governments were unable to answer their queries, requiring investigation by Royal Navy officers.

The commission recommended that imperial garrisons in Barbados be withdrawn but colonial under-secretary Robert Henry Meade halted this, concerned that the colonial government lacked the necessary expertise to secure the ports. Meade consulted with the permanent under secretary Sir Robert Herbert and military officers who agreed that a small Colonial Office standing committee was necessary to coordinate defence arrangements. The Colonial Defence Committee was approved and met for the first time on 22 April 1885, to disucss the defence of Barbados.

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Planning included a method of defending the colonies in case of a largescale European war.

6 Augus 1888 recommended that a battalion be added to the garrison at Hong Kong, doubling the infantry available there. This led to the raising of the Hong Kong Regiment of the British Indian Army for service.

Committee included army and navy officers. Urged standardiseation between colonial units for better compatibility on the battlefield. Such a move would provide a large pool of colonial troops, perhaps 10,000 each in Canada, Australia and South Africa, for service alongside the British Army at short notice. Such measures were resisted by some colonial governments, including Canada and Austrlaia with significant factions in those countries opposed to involvement in foreign wars.

The War Office decided on a cautious approach to standardise and professionalise the colonial troops as much as possible but ask for no commitments from the colonial governments as to their deployment. The 1909 Imperial Conference reached an agreement between the dominions to move towards an "homogenous Imperial Army" with standardised training to War Office manuals

Between 1895 and 1905 drew up plans for the defence of Jamestown, Saint Helena which were fudned by the British government, due to the poor performance of the local economy. The committee had judged the port vulnerable to attack from an organised expedition and its capture would threaten trade in the SOuth Atlantic.

CDC and War Office policy was that imperial troops should have no responsibility for the garrisoning of the colonies but could be posted to imperial property such as Royal Navy coaling stations. As an example, the officer commanding the troops at teh coaling station in Sierra Leone could not enter the colony proper without War Office permission and had no official communication with the colonial forces of the West Africa Frontier Force. Imperial troops came under the War Office, colonial troops under the Colonial Office.

Became known as the Oversea Defence Committee from 1908.ref>Ekoko, A.E. (1983). "The Theory and Practice of Imperial Garrisons: the British Experiment in the South Atlantic 1881 - 1914". Journal of the Historical Society of Nigeria. 12 (1/2): 144. ISSN 0018-2540.</ref>

The Russia crisis caused panic in some colonies. The Governor of Ceylon moved 50,000 tons of coal and the government treasury inland. The CDC was determined to stop such overreactions i the future. Local Defence Committees were established in all dependencies who were repsonisble for devising local defence plans for approval by teh CDC.