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Admiral Superintendent, China (H.M.S. "Calcutta") to Governor, Hong Kong.
With reference to the requirements of Her Majesty's Ships Employed on the East India Station, and as a large proportion of the Squadron has of late been Employed on the Coast of China, Your Excellency will readily understand that no reduction of the Naval Civil Establishment can with safety be ventured upon, while our Ships are retained in these Parts.
I have to report to Your Excellency whether or not the presence of the Squadron is required in China, but so long as it is stationed in these Seas, there must be adequate means for providing the Ships with proper provisions.
With regard to the nature and value of the stores in charge of the Naval Storekeeper and Agent Victualler, I think it is only necessary to state that they are what are ordinarily understood as Naval Stores, and are too numerous to define. There should be every Article necessary for the fitting, rigging, refitting, repairing, and victualling of the Squadron. The value of these Naval Victualling stores is undoubtedly large, but varies so much from day to day, as the wants of the Squadron may be supplied, and according to the quantities that are sent from England, that any calculation of their value would be giving useless trouble to estimate and would only mislead Your Excellency.
I am not the first person to point out, nor is this the first occasion on which I have pointed out that the Condition of the Godowns at present designated the Naval Storehouses is most dilapidated, and that they are altogether and decidedly unfit for the purposes to which they have been applied. I have already declined to sanction any further outlay upon them, beyond what may be absolutely required to protect the stored Provisions from the weather, and the Experience which every day brings me only tends to strengthen the opinions previously expressed. I do not therefore contemplate further Expenditure for works or repairs upon the present Naval Storehouses.
The site of the buildings at West Point is extremely inconvenient and objectionable, and I have recommended to the Admiralty a range of Storehouses now vacant called the Albany Godowns, as being well adapted for naval purposes, but I will presently bring under the notice of Your Excellency a Pile of buildings which will be still more appropriate for the purpose.
Your Excellency enquires whether I consider "that the 'Minden' is equal to containing the variety of Ship Gear and dry stores likely to be required for repair, refitting, and supplying the Squadron ordinarily in these Seas."