that
no
doubt the Major-General Commanding in China will in make full reports of all that has taken place connected therewith, to the proper authorities in England, but it seems my duty, with reference to your Despatch Military N.6 of the 24th May 1849, to bring the following facts to your Lordship's notice.
3.
It appears that on the 20th June last, immediately after the disease broke out in the Garrison, Major-General Staveley applied to the Senior Naval officer (Captain Tronbridge) to permit him to send some of the sick of the 59th Regiment on board the No1. "Minden", (an old 74 gun ship), used as Store-ship, which Captain Tronbridge refused to accede to, on the grounds that compliance with the Major-General's request would be a disobedience of the orders of the Naval Commander-in-Chief; and so far no blame can be attributed to Captain Tronbridge; but, my Lord, I would with great deference beg to call Your attention to the serious inconvenience and expense to which Her Majesty's Service has been subjected in consequence of this order, for it is admitted by Captain Tronbridge in his letter of the 21st June 1850, "that if I had urged the request, he should have complied therewith", meaning that he would have done so.
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