16
MILITARY DEPARTMENT, 13TH OCTOBER 1880, No. 6462.
•
RANGOON.
A regiment of Infantry, the wing of a regiment and a battery of Royal Artillery were
stationed here.
Barracks. —The cantonment for the troops lies north of the town. The barracks are placed
on a site 117 feet above the level of the sea ; they are well exposed to the breeze and are
arranged in detached bungalows, in each of which there are two principal lofty rooms and two
small ones for non-commissioned officers at one of the ends intended to lodge forty men ; they
afford 1,368 feet of cubic space and 92 feet of superficial area for each man. The buildings
are of wood and they are elevated on piles 10 feet above the ground, the area beneath bein
g paved with bricks. There are verandahs on the north and south sides of each block. Venti
-lation is by means of the numerous opposite doors and windows, lattices and openings beneath
the ridges of the roofs.
Guard Room. —The guard-room is an old building ; it is in contemplation to replace it
by a more suitable one.
Cells. —Each cell gives 2,000 feet of cubic and 125 feet of superficial space.
The environs of the barracks are drained ; but a suitable outfall at a safe distance is
wanting, and at one part of the course of the drain, accumulation of offensive drainage from
the wash-house lodges.
Latrines. —On the dry-earth system, are satisfactory in every way, the soil removed is used
for gardens situated at some distance.
Water. —That for drinking is procured from wells, and is reported to be good, filtered before
use. In May it is less plentiful. Water for ablution is taken from the neighbouring lake.
Cooking. —The cook-houses are new, and are fitted with cooking stoves and boilers ; there
are also, however, the native fireplaces and cooking utensils.
Rations. —Mutton is issued only twice a-month ; salt beef or salt pork are issued twice
a-month in lieu of fresh beef. Preserved potatoes, or dried beans, are occasionally issued when
fresh potatoes are not good ; vegetables are scarce in the rainy season.
Canteen.—The articles issued were good. The medical officer of the 11/8th Brigade, Royal
Artillery, objects to the new system ; drunkenness, he thinks, is increased by it.
Amusements. —These are sufficient and sufficiently various ; they include the usual out-of
-door gains ; boating in the lake is followed. There is a gymnastic class.
Duties. —Not severe or prejudicial except in the instance of the guard-mounting duty of
the men of the battery of Royal Artillery, to whom three and four nights in bed throughout
the year, and in December one and two only, caused injury to health.
Hospital. —Is an old building, and one about to be replaced ; it is south-east of the
barracks, and consists of two long wooden buildings raised on posts five feet from the ground ;
it affords 2,034 cubic and 130 feet of surface space for each patient.
The kitchen is old, and badly fitted.
THAYETMYO.
The garrison here was largely increased in anticipation of the possible requirements of
field service. It comprised a regiment, and the wing of a regiment of Infantry and two batteries
of Royal Artillery. Of the force, 217 men were stationed at Allamyo, on the opposite side of the
River Irrawaddy, and were lodged in huts of a temporary kind.
Thayetmyo is on the west bank of the Irrawaddy, and the station is described as a clearing
of about three miles in extent in the jungle, the country is undulating with hills of granite
or slate rising to a height of from 5 to 800 feet. The soil of the station is alluvial, the subsoil
contains alleviating beds of sand and of clay, the latter mixed with carbonate of lime. There
are numerous water-courses, which are dry for the greater part of the year. Inundations
caused by the rise of the river, which is here a mile wide, are common.
Barracks. —These are built on an eminence of seventy feet near the river ; they consist of a
series of wooden bungalows, raised eight feet above the ground in piles ; they have double
roofs and wide verandahs ; the ground beneath the bungalows is paved with brick. Each bun
-galow is divided into a central day room, and into two long rooms, at the end of each of which
are two non-commissioned officers' rooms. The ventilation is good and the barracks afforded
1,721—1,800 cubic feet of space to each man during the year.
The barracks occupied by the Royal Artillery were those inside the fort, on the north of
the cantonment and close to the river ; they consisted of bungalows of masonry with four rooms
in each, raised three feet from the ground and having broad verandahs. The ventilation good ;
with twenty men in each room, the cubic space was 1,980 feet, the superficial area 90.
Drainage. —The drainage owing to slope of ground was generally good, but some swampy
places which it was purposed to drain existed.