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Appendix No. 4. reading the papers which were transmitted to the Governor of the Cape in reference to the points
which Her Majesty's Government desired to have considered by a local Committee.
CAPE OF GOOD HOPE.
I am now to inclose, for your information, a copy of the papers referred to, and I am to request that you will treat them as strictly confidential, and that you will return them to this Department at as early a date as possible.
I am, &c.
(Signed)
ROBERT G. W. HERBERT.
No. 26.
Sir,
Colonial Office to Royal Commission on the Defence of British Possessions and Commerce Abroad.
Downing Street, March 30, 1880.
I AM directed by the Secretary of State for the Colonies to transmit to you, to be laid before the Royal Commission on the Defence of British Possessions and Commerce Abroad, printed copies of a despatch from the Governor of the Cape of Good Hope, inclosing the Reports of the local Commission appointed for the purpose of reporting upon the works and armaments necessary for the defence of the Cape Peninsula.
The remarks of the Cape Ministry on the inclosed Reports will be transmitted to you as soon as they are received from the Governor.
I am, &c.
(Signed)
Inclosure 1 in No. 26.
R. H. MEADE.
(Secret.) Sir,
Governor Sir Bartle Frere to Sir M. E. Hicks Beach.
Government House, Cape Town, February 16, 1880. REFERRING to previous correspondence on the subject of the defences of Table Bay and Simon's Bay, I have the honour to forward Reports from the Commission appointed, under instructions con- tained in your Secret despatch of the 22nd October last,* for the purpose of reporting upon the works and armaments necessary for the defence of the Cape Peninsula.
2. I had requested my Ministers to suggest the names of one or two persons whom they might wish to be associated with the officers selected by his Excellency the Commander of the Forces in South Africa for the purpose of reporting on this subject. Mr. Sprigg, however, represented to me that they had no officers of their own whose opinion would be of value on a question like the present, and that the only question involved on which they would desire to have an opinion of their own was the financial question, i.e., the share of the expense to be borne by the Colony. This my Ministers could hardly know till the Commissioners had reported, and they would have every confidence in the professional opinion of the officers selected by his Excellency the Commander of the Forces.
3. I am sending copies of the inclosed papers to Ministers for their remarks, but as I do not anti- cipate that they will affect the question of what works or armaments should be provided, I lose no time in submitting to you the Reports of the Commission.
I have, &c.
(Signed)
H. B. E. FRERE.
Inclosure 2 in No. 26.
Minutes of the Proceedings of the Defence Commission, assembled at Government House, Cape Town, on the 11th and 14th February, 1880, in accordance with Instructions from the Right Honourable the Secretary of State for the Colonics, dated the 22nd October, 1879, to report upon and to prepare Estimates of the Cost of the Defence of the Table Bay Peninsula.
President:
His Excellency the Right Hon. Sir H. BARTLE FRERE, Bart. G.C.B., G.S.C.I., Governor and
High Commissioner.
Members:
Commodore Richards, C.B., Commanding West and South African Station (absent on the
West Coast on duty).
Colonel Fairfax Hassard, C.B., Commanding Royal Engineer, South Africa, Commandant
Cape Colony.
Colonel Bellairs, C.B., Deputy Adjutant and Quartermaster-General,
Lieutenant-Colonel Law, C.B., Commanding Royal Artillery, South Africa.
Secretary:
Major H. H. Parr, 13th Light Infantry, Military Secretary to his Excellency Sir
B. Frere.
THE Commission met at Government House, Cape Town, on the 11th February, 1880, all the members being present with the exception of Commodore Richards, C.B., R.N., absent on duty on the West Coast of Africa.
*Inclosure 1 in No. 18.
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