2.4
53
supplying their places had been foreseen and provided for
2 J.
Your Lordship will also observe that it would have been impossible for me to have had the advantage of consulting Your Lordship as I otherwise would have wished, previous to the various steps which the urgency of the case and the loss of so large a part of the force next May, imposed on me.
Even now, awaiting Your Lordship's sanction to arrangements, which, as you observe, may still be incomplete, and finally fall through; but I apprehend failure was not alternative. Moreover, I cannot but feel that whilst there are many undertakings which the Colony in its present financial state must defer, and some which it must abandon, it is still quite possible for it to carry out those Police duties, which are a moral obligation on any civilized Government; and this I hope to be able to accomplish more satisfactorily than I had at first expected.
I cannot however look for such result without a thorough reform and reorganization of the Police force itself.
I have the honour to be,
Your Lordship's
Most obedient servant,
Richard Graves MacDonnell
Governor.