PUBLIC RECORD OFFICE
Reference :-
mlaimin
TTC.O. 882
6
House of Commons Paper
No. 423 of
1861.
l'ara. 1.
Para. 1.
Para. 2.
Para. 10.
Printed for the use of the Colonial Office.
Eastern
No. 124.
CONFIDENTIAL.
MILITARY
MEMORANDUM ON THE
CONTRIBUTION IN THE EASTERN COLONIES.
1. INTRODUCTORY.
It must be admitted that, with the exception of Hong Kong, the Eastern Colonies have always paid something towards their defence. Mauritius paid from the time of its conquest in 1810, the Straits Settlements from before the transfer of the Colony from India to Colonial Office control, and Ceylon from the time of its transfer from the East India Company in 1801. It would therefore be very difficult to propose, with any appearance of reason, even if the Treasury and War Office were not certain to resist such a proposal to the last, that the Eastern Colonies should be freed from all liability to contribute towards their defence. No such claim has, in fact, been made by the Colonies themselves with the exception of Hong Kong, which strenuously resisted the first attempts of Her Majesty's Government to levy a contribution in aid.
Apart from this attitude of the Colonies the position taken up by the Imperial Government was first explicitly asserted in the Report of a Select Committee, appointed in 1861 "to enquire whether any, and what, alterations may be advantageously adopted in regard to the defence of the British dependencies and the proportions of cost of such defence as now defrayed from Imperial and Colonial funds respectively."
The Committee divided dependencies into two classes :-
(1) Those which may properly be called Colonies (in which Ceylon and Mauritius were in- cluded);
(2) Military garrisons, naval stations, convict depôts, and dependencies maintained chiefly for objects of Imperial policy. To this class Hong Kong belonged.
The Straits Settlements, which were then governed from India, were not taken into account, since India was excluded from the scope of the Report.
4
As regards class (2), i.e., Hong Kong. "it appears to your Committee that... the responsibility and main cost of their defence properly devolves on the Imperial "Government."
,,
"With respect to the dependencies properly called "Colonies,' and to which any recommendations herein- "after to be made as to the mode or cost of Colonial
C
"defence exclusively relate, the practical application of "such recommendations both as to time and place, must "necessarily be left to the discretion of Her Majesty's Government, having regard to the local resources of "each dependency, to its dangers from external attack, "and to the general exigencies of the Empire. With "this reservation it appears to your Committee that the responsibility and cost of the military defence of such dependencies ought mainly to devolve upon themselves."
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