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Appendix No. 4.
CAPE OF GOOD HOPE.
(Secret.) Sir,
84
Inclosure 1 in No. 20.
Governor Sir Bartle Frere to Colonial Office.
Government House, Cape Town, November 29, 1879. I HAVE the honour to acknowledge the receipt of your Secret despatch of the 22nd October,* on the subject of the defences of the Cape Peninsula, and to inclose, for your information, copies of the telegrams which have passed between his Excellency Sir Garnet Wolseley and myself on the subject.
I have, &c.
Inclosure 2 in No. 20.
(Signed)
H. B. E. FRERE.
(Telegraphic.)
Governor Sir Bartle Frere to Sir G. Wolseley.
Cape Town, November 16, 1879.
I HAVE received instructions from Secretary of State by mail, arrived this morning, to appoint, as soon as possible, a Committee, composed of Officers named by your Excellency and this Goverment, to report on the subject referred to in my cypher telegram of this date. The Secretary of State presses for an early answer, and if your Excellency could nominate the Officers you would select at once, they might go to work and prepare estimates, &c., to be sent to you for opinion before going home.
(Telegraphic.)
Inclosure 3 in No. 20.
Governor Sir Bartle Frere to Sir G. Wolseley.
Cape Town, November 16, 1879.
TO effect that subject referred to open telegram of same date,† was the preparation of estimates of cost of works required to give complete effect to proposals already submitted for defence of Cape Peninsula, including Table and Simon's Bays.
(Telegraphic.)
Inclosure 4 in No. 20.
Sir G. Wolseley to Governor Sir Bartle Frere.
Head-quarters' Camp, beyond Fort Oliphants, November 22, 1879. I HAVE received your Excellency's two telegrams, one open and the other in cypher, of the 16th November, but I am at a loss how to act upon them, as your Excellency does not tell me either the number or the rank of the Officers that you inform me I am asked to name, or whether I am to name the President of the Committee, or whether the President of the Committee is to be a Military Officer. The Committee, as far as I can gather from your Excellency's telegrams, should, it appears to me, be a purely military, or a military and naval Committee, and should therefore, I presume, be appointed by me. However this may be, knowing as little as I do regarding the proposed Committee, I could not either name the Officers as you ask me to do, or appoint the Committee, without having the Secretary of State's instructions communicated to me. Will your Excellency kindly telegraph them to me, or the purport of them, including necessary particulars, and say whether they are from Secretary of State for Colonies or for War. If you wish for any information at once on engineering questions Colonel Hassard will give you his opinion.
(Telegraphic.)
Inclosure 5 in No. 20.
Governor Sir Bartle Frere to Sir G. Wolseley.
Cape Town, November 29, 1879.
YOUR telegram of 22nd received.§ Secretary of State for Colonies sends single copy of mass of printed correspondence regarding defence of Table Mountain Peninsula. Correspondence relates mainly to works generally approved by successive Commanders-in-chief and Defence Committees in part executed, and their completion awaiting the decision of the Royal Commission now sitting. Secretary of State says to me, under date 22nd October :-
"I request that you will, as soon as possible, appoint a local Committee under your direction, composed of Officers named by the General Officer Commanding and your Government, to report upon the various points referred to in the inclosed letter from the War Office, and to prepare an estimate of the cost of the various works requisite to carry into complete effect the proposals of the General Officer Commanding, and that you will transmit to me the Report and estimate at your earliest convenience with any observations which you may have to offer upon them, in order that they
§ Inclosure 4.
* Inclosure 1 in No. 18.
+ Inclosure 2.
Inclosures 2 and 3.
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