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8. Strongly impressed as I am with these views I trust you will think I am justified in desiring to avoid being compelled to lay before the Legislature or the public any proposal on the part of the Home Government which could be converted by the opponents of the present system of Government into a plea for its abolition, and acting under such convictions, I venture with great respect to express a hope that it may be found possible to avoid suggesting the arrangement put forward in your despatch.
9. I regret much that the necessity of sending off this despatch by mounted express at once to be in time to catch the mail at King George's Sound, 250 miles distant, deprives me of the opportunity of going into the question at the length I desire, and which its importance demands.
10. I would, however, observe that the knowledge of the fact that the mail steamer will be at King George's Sound at a given time is not likely to be a greater inducement for an enemy to lie in wait for her there than at any other point on her route between it and the eastern Colonies. The Peninsular and Oriental Company's time-tables give the exact hour at which she will be entering and leaving the other ports, and the cruizer would have just as good an opportunity of picking her up at them as at the Sound. In fact, if the mail-steamers are to be allowed in war time to carry gold as a temptation to an enemy to seize them, they must be convoyed all the way along the Australian coast. Doubtless, however, it would be arranged, as has been done on previous occasions, that mail steamers carrying only letters should be exempted from molestation.
11. The refusal to allow mails to be landed at King George's Sound would, under present circumstances, be equivalent to depriving the Colony of postal communication with Europe. I have, however, received within the last hour a proposal from an influential member of the Legislative Council which, if carried, would provide a way out of the difficulty created by the Committee's suggestion.
12. This proposal is made by a gentleman interested in the Freemantle trade, and is to the effect that the Government shall be empowered to purchase a good-sized steam tug to be used for the service of that port, for laying down buoys, communicating with Rottnest Prison, and for general surveying duties, and that the Government should then suggest to the Peninsular and Oriental Company that in their new contract, shortly to be entered into, the mail steamers should call at Freemantle in place of Albany, and without anchoring, if thought desirable, should deliver their mails and passengers into, and receive them from, this vessel.
13. It is curious that this suggestion should be made just at this particular moment; but as I have reason to suppose, from what its originator, Mr. Shenton, tells me, that there is a fair probability of its being accepted by the Council, I think I am justified in bringing it under your notice.
14. I have to apologize for the imperfections in this despatch, which, as I have mentioned, has been written under circumstances requiring great haste.
I have, &c.
(Signed)
H. ST. GEORGE ORD.
No. 260.
(Secret and Confidential.) Sir,
Colonial Office to War Office.
Downing Street, July 30, 1878.
I AM directed by the Secretary of State for the Colonies to transmit to you a copy of a telegram* received through the Governor of Hong Kong from the General commanding the troops there to the Secretary of State for War on the subject of the defences of that Colony.
2. I am to request that you will state to Secretary Colonel Stanley that Sir Michael Hicks Beach, while desirous that no expense should be incurred that is not necessary for the defence of Hong Kong, and that the fullest consideration should be given to the works to be executed, he would much regret to find that the present opportunity is not taken in order to place the Colonial defences in a thoroughly satisfactory condition without waiting for future complications which might necessitate immediate measures, probably of a less efficient and more expensive character than might now be adopted.
I am, &c.
(Signed)
* No. 244.
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ROBERT G. W. HERBERT.
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