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The only recommendation, therefore, that the Committee have to make is that no special encouragement should be given to increase the output of coal during the present emergency, and that the stock in hand should be kept as low as possible.
(Signed)
ALEX. MILNE. HENRY BARKLY. J. L. A. SIMMONS.
No. 146.
(Secret and Confidential.) Sir,
Colonial Office to War Office.
Downing Street, May 30, 1878. I AM directed by the Secretary of State for the Colonies to request that you will state to Secretary Colonel Stanley, that he has received a telegram from the Governor of the Straits Settlements, reporting the arrival of the General, and requesting to be informed when the guns recommended by the Colonial Defence Committee may be expected to reach the Colony, and I am to request to be informed what answer should be telegraphed to Sir W. C. F. Robinson in reply.
No. 147. 16g
I am, &c. (Signed) R. H. MEADE.
Governor the Right Hon. Sir H. B. Frere, Bart., G.C.B., G.C.S.I., to the Right Hon. Sir M. E. Hicks Beach, Bart.-(Received May 30.)
(No. 105.) Sir,
Government House, Cape Town, May 6, 1878. WITH reference to previous correspondence on the subject of the defence of the Colony, I have the honour to forward three copies of the "Government Gazette,"* contain- ing the draft Bills on the following subjects, which, by the advice of my Ministers, I have authorized being published, with a view to their early consideration by the Colonial Parliament :-
(1.) For the better protection of the Colony by disarming all who are not licensed to carry arms in certain districts.
(2.) For raising a Yeomanry force.
(3.) For the better regulation of volunteer forces.
(4.) For organizing the Cape Mounted Rifles in lieu of the frontier armed and mounted police.
I also forward two copies of the "Cape Argus" of the 24th ultimo, giving an abstract of these measures.
2. It would be premature, in their present shape, to say more of these Bills than that they afford evidence of the intention of the present Ministers to take practical steps to provide for the defence of the Colony from its own resources.
I have, &c.
(Signed)
Inclosure in No. 147.
Extract from the "Cape Argus" of April 24, 1878.
H. B. E. FRERE.
ABSTRACT OF THE PROVISIONS OF THE PROPOSED DEFENCE MEASURES.-In addition to the Peace Preservation Bill, which has been already published, four Bills were pub- lished in yesterday's "Gazette," having for their object the establishment of a system of Colonial defence.
The first of these is a Cape Mounted Yeomanry Act, which provides generally for the raising of three regiments of cavalry within districts neighbouring to the Colonial frontier, and thus available for rapid operation in case of disturbance of the peace. Ry the regiments proposed to be raised and distributed as in the Act provided, lines of defence will be formed, and a kind of permanent advance guard will be furnished by the
* Not printed.
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