64
saving is effected, as the inclosed memorandum by the Staff Officer, prepared by direction of the Commandant, will show; and that if that part of Sir William Jervois' scheme of defence relating to the employment of torpedoes is abandoned the whole plan is destroyed, as a vessel running past the batteries might find safe anchorage above whence to bombard the town and land a force to take the town battery (Queen's) in reverse. To obviate this, we should have to rely upon a different plan less directly efficient and at an increased expense.
3. I give this opinion merely as a personal one, not having had the opportunity of communicating with Sir William Jervois or Colonel Scratchley, as the papers must be forwarded without delay, but Ministers will doubtless recognize that it is important that Sir William and the Home Government should be clearly informed as to whether they intend to postpone the full execution of his recommendations, carrying them out by degrees, or, as the memorandum implies, to reject part of them, thereby destroying the plan of defence.
4. With the last paragraph of Ministers' memorandum I desire to express my entire concurrence. Sir James Milne Wilson, at my suggestion, raised this question at the Inter-Colonial Conference of May 1878, and his view was affirmed by the Conference. All steps should be taken in reference to this ultimate object, and that is one main reason why the recommendations of General Sir W. F. D. Jervois should, in my opinion, be steadily adhered to. Uniformity of system, eo far as the means and circumstances of each Colony permit, under one directing mind is the first step to future confederate defensive action. It would appear to me further to be most desirable that the several Colonies should unitedly request the Home Government to place at their disposal an officer of rank to inspect and control the military organization of these Colonies as a whole. That, in my opinion, is the best and perhaps the only means to secure united action, to settle local administrative difficulties, to give a character of permanence and solidity to the defence movement, and to render it a reality.
FRED. A. WELD.
Government House, October 6, 1879.
(Signed)
Inclosure 3 in No. 74.
Memorandum by Ministers to his Excellency the Governor of Tasmania.
WITH reference to his Excellency's memorandum requesting a more definite state- ment of the views of Ministers upon the subject of a permanent force and a torpedo corps than that contained in the Colonial Secretary's memorandum of the 1st instant, Mr. Reibey has the honour to state that the departure from the proposals of his Excellency, Sir William Jervois, and Colonel Scratchley, mentioned in the memorandum above referred to, was not intended as a final abandonment of that portion of the scheme, though as regards the action Ministers propose to take in connection with the defences during the coming year, they are not prepared to apply to Parliament for the necessary funds to provide for the organization of those branches of the service.
THOS. REIBEY.
Sir,
Colonial Secretary's Office, Hobart Town, October 9, 1879.
No. 75.
(Signed)
Colonial Office to the Secretary to the Royal Commission on the Defence of British Possessions and Commerce Abroad.
Downing Street, December 16, 1879.
I AM directed by the Secretary of State for the Colonies to transmit to you, for the information of the Royal Commission on the Defence of British Possessions and Commerce Abroad, the accompanying copy of correspondence* relating to the conversion of Canadian merchant vessels into armed cruizers in time of war.
I am, &c.
(Signed) JOHN BRAMSTON.
Sir,
65
No. 76.
Colonial Office to Admiralty.
Downing Street, December 16, 1879. I AM directed by the Secretary of State for the Colonies to transmit to you, to be laid before the Lords Commissioners of the Admiralty, a copy of a despatch from the Governor-General of Canada, inclosing a Minute of the Privy Council expressing a wish to receive, for the use of the Dominion Government, the information offered in your letter of the 24th of January last instant,† relating to the conversion of merchant vessels into armed cruizers in time of war, and I am to request that their Lordships will be good enough to furnish this Department with the information desired for communication to the Govern- ment of Canada.
I am, &c. (Signed)
JOHN BRAMSTON.
No. 77.
Colonial Office to the Secretary to the Royal Commission on the Defence of British Possessions and Commerce Abroad.
"
Sir,
Downing Street, December 16, 1879. 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, copies of three Circular despatches which Sir Michael Hicks Beach addressed to the Governors of Colònies on the 21st and 22nd of October last, with reference to the appointment of the Commission. I am also to inclose a copy of a reply§ which has been received from the Governor of Newfoundland. I am to add that this is the first reply which has as yet been received to the Circular despatches.
I am,
Sir,
(Signed)
No. 78.
Colonial Office to Admiralty.
&c.
JOHN BRAMSTON.
Downing Street, December 22, 1879. THE Secretary of State for the Colonies caused your letter of the 22nd November,|| inquiring whether the guns and ordnance stores which were lent to the Government of Canada in 1878, for the temporary defence of Victoria and Esquimalt, could not now be returned to the Naval Stores at Esquimalt, to be referred to the Royal Commission on the → Defence of British Possessions and Commerce Abroad, and I am to inclose, for the infor- mation of the Lords Commissioners of the Admiralty, a copy of the reply¶ which has been received from the Royal Commission.
From this letter it would appear that the guns lent from the Naval Stores have been replaced at the expense of the War Department by a corresponding number of similar guns sent from this country, but in any circumstances Sir M. Hicks Beach would have enter- tained a strong objection to rendering useless the temporary defences erected in 1878, and pending a settlement of the question of permanent defences which, as their Lordships are aware, is now under consideration.
I am to add that Sir M. Hicks Beach has already expressed his views as to the question of the cost of the defences in the letter from this Department of the 19th November, 1878.**
I am, (Signed)
&c.
ROBERT G. W. HERBERT.
* Nos. 68 and 76.
¶ No. 70.
Two only printed: Nos. 42 and 41.
• No. 19, " Miscellaneous No, 35 r."
• No. 68
+ Not printed.
$ No. 66
No. 59.
[1093]
PUBLIC RECORD OFFICE
Reference:
C.O. 885
PUBLIC RECORD OFFICE, LONDON
ALLY WITHOUT PERMISSION OF THE BE REPRODUCED PHOTOGRAPHIC- COPYRIGHT PHOTOGRAPH-NOT TO
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