PUBLIC RECORD OFFICE
Reference :-
C.O. 885
ALLY WITHOUT PERMISSION OF THE BE REPRODUCED PHOTOGRAPHIC-
COPYRIGHT PHOTOGRAPH-NOT TO
PUBLIC RECORD OFFICE, LONDON
Memorandum for the Honourable the Privy Council.
IN submitting the accompanying Memorandum from Sir Selby Smyth, K.C.M.G., his Excellency desires to point out to the Honourable the Privy Council that as the British Government is about to break up, or otherwise dispose of, some of the older class of iron- clads, an opportunity is afforded of obtaining two of these vessels for the Dominion of Canada at a low price; and without going into the details of Sir Selby Smyth's Memoran- dum, such an acquisition to the defensive power of the Colony might be found to be of much service.
Should, therefore, the Honourable the Privy Council entertain the idea, his Excellency will submit any proposition they may draw up for the consideration of the Home authorities.
By command, (Signed)
February 3, 1879.
F. DE WINTON, Governor-General's Secretary.
Adjutant-General's Office, Canada,
Ottawa, February 1, 1879.
IN my annual Report for this year I have had the honour to submit for consideration the expediency of passing an Act through the Dominion Legislature, in pursuance of the 3rd section of the Colonial Naval Defence Act of 1865," which was intended to make better provision for the naval defence of the Colonies.
I am induced to refer to the subject just now owing to the probability of the British Government shortly disposing of some of the old iron-clad ships of war which have been superseded by ships of a different build more suited to modern development of naval and artillery science.
Under this view I submit for consideration the value that one or two such ships would prove, if obtained either by purchase or gift, by the Dominion Government.
They could be used either as block ships, armed with moderately heavy guns, for coast or harbour defence on the Atlantic or Pacific coasts, or on both, or they might be applied to the purpose of training naval volunteers, or as schools for lads on the same principle as many old line of battle ships are now used in the Clyde, Thames, and various other British seaports.
They might in fact serve for the triple purposes I have mentioned.
Hitherto, I think, little or no attention has been paid to the education of young men for employment in a naval service, though the great extent of sea-board and the interior lines of lakes and rivers render it very desirable that a reserve naval force should exist, easily available to support and supplement the land forces of the Dominion in time of war, or in taking prudent precautions to prevent it.
As regards naval acquirements, the theory of navigation can of course be acquired on shore, but scamanship can only be mastered by a sea experience on board ship.
I believe that approximately in the Canadian Dominion there are not less than 87,000 seafaring men. In 1872, about 1,000 decked vessels, and 17,000 open boats, manned by 42,000 men, were employed. In 1876 there were about 6,952 vessels, of about 1,205,565 tons. During the year 1876, 480 new vessels of 151,012 tons were built in the Dominion. The value of the fish exported from Canada in the same year amounted to 1,000,0001., and from Newfoundland to 1,340,000l. It is stated in the annual Report of Governor Hill for 1872 that about 10,000 men are engaged in the seal fishery of New- foundland, and that this number includes almost every available able-bodied man on the island, amounting to about 75,000 men.
The rigorous climate of Canada and Newfoundland, throughout their long winter season, makes it impossible for fishermen to pursue their regular vocation.
The long interval of enforced idleness during winter would afford an admirable opportunity for regular attendance at drill, without interfering with other employment. vigorous effort should therefore be made to enrol these Colonial fishermen in a naval feserve. They are thoroughly enured to the hardships of the sea by the severe weather to which they are so often exposed in pursuit of their calling. No subjects of the Crown are more loyal and patriotic, and there would be no difficulty in giving the fishermen of the maritime provinces an opportunity of embarking for their annual drill at a port easily accessible from their own homes.
One or two such old armoured ships as I have alluded to might be commissioned specially for the purpose of training seamen who would join the naval reserve from the gulf ports of the St. Lawrence, from the maritime provinces, and from Newfoundland.
3
The ships would, of course, carry an armament, and drills on the main deck under cover could be carried on in the most inclement weather.
The station of the drill-ships would, of course, depend upon various circumstances. In summer they could cruise, and in winter a port in the maritime provinces would be selected for one or both of them.
Thus the members of the naval reserve would have the opportunity of going through
an annual course of drill.
We have taken steps to avail ourselves of the services of the population for land <defence by a well organized militia, and have enrolled large bodies of men for that purpose. There can be no sufficient reason, except the provision of funds, for neglecting to recruit for a naval reserve among the vast number of loyal inhabitants, who dwell upon the coasts of the Canadian Dominion.
In 1873 a member of the Canadian Senate remarked that in the men who sail the fishing fleets of Canada we see the elements of a very powerful marine, which will be found invaluable in time of national danger, and that there was no reason why training- ships, supported by the Government, should not be started upon the system somewhat similar to that which has been found to work so well in the United Kingdom.
The policy recommended seems in consonance with the views expressed by the Earl of Elgin, who, when Governor-General of Canada, argued with so much force on the advantages to England and her Colonies of an intimate union between them.
"Is the Queen of England," he wrote, " to be the Sovereign of an Empire, growing, expanding, strengthening itself from age to age, striking its roots into fresh earth, and drawing new supplies of vitality from virgin soils, or is she to be for all essential purposes of might and power Monarch of Great Britain and Ireland only ?"
The organization of a naval reserve in Canada would be intended only as a means of defending the Dominion, and not for adding to the naval strength and supremacy of the Empire beyond the purposes contemplated in the Colonial Naval Defence Act already referred to.
Organization beforehand is essential to success in war; we have abundance of seamen, as I have shown, in Canada; but we have no organization whatever to use them for national defence.
I remember a speech delivered in 1872 by one of the greatest statesmen of this age. He said: "Self-government, when "it was conceded, ought, in my opinion, to have been conceded as part of a great policy of Imperial consolidation. It ought to have been accompanied by a Military Code, which should have previously defined the means and responsibilities by which the Colonies should have been defended, and by which, if necessary, this country should call for aid from the Colonies themselves. In my opinion no Minister in this country will do his duty who neglects an opportunity of resuscitating as much as possible our Colonial Empire, and of responding to those distant sympathies which may become the source of incalculable strength and happiness to this land,"
Should the proposal I have ventured to make be entertained, and if two such ships should become the property of the Government of the Dominion, our Atlantic seaboard' would be more securely guarded in the event of any of those alarms or emergencies of war which our experience of the last twenty years has taught us may come suddenly and when least expected.
Sydney, Pictou, Charlottetown, and St. John are all important seaports in exposed positions on the Atlantic coast; while Victoria and Esquimalt, in Vancouver Island, demand no less attention.
the
The ten long-range guns mounted last year for the defence of those ports have greatly added to their protection; but I must again take this opportunity of calling attention to
grave question of the means for working those guns in case of war.
I have pointed out, and I may here repeat, that the battery of artillerymen enrolled at Victoria are not numerically nor scientifically efficient for the purpose, and the character, pursuits, and employment of the population of Victoria render it improbable that they ever will take willingly and heartily to such work.
Therefore I repeat my urgent request that the question of manning these guns, as pointed out by Rear-Admiral de Horsey and myself, should be considered, and that 80 or 100 Royal Marine artillerymen should be permanently stationed at Esquimalt for that
purpose.
I mention that special branch of the service because they are under naval laws, and would, of course, be on the ships' books of the squadron, and so more easily provided for than any other force could be.
[1093]
C
{
تر