PUBLIC RECORD OFFICE
Reference :-
C.O. 885
24 PUBLIC RECORD OFFICE, LONDON
ALLY WITHOUT PERMISSION OF THE BE REPRODUCED PHOTOGRAPHIC- COPYRIGHT PHOTOGRAŹNOT TO
3905/S
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OBYLON
No. 46.
THE GOVERNOR to THE SECRETARY OF STATE.
(Confidential)
(Received 25th January, 1915.)
The Queen's House, Colombo, Ceylon,
31st December, 1914. SIB,
In continuation of my Confidential despatch of the 23rd instant,* I have the bonour to acknowledge the receipt of the following telegraphio despatches:-
(a) Your telegrams of the 16th, 19th, and 22nd (2) December, as to giving facilities for inspection of the prize ship "Australia" to representatives of various shipping firms.
Your directions have been acted on, and I have also offered similar facilities to any local firms who may desire to inspect the ship.
(b) Your telegram of the 22nd December, asking whether Mr. Tyrrell can be spared for service under the War Office.
I replied in the affirmative by my telegram of the 23rd December.
(c) Your telegram of the 23rd December, intimating that Mr. H. B. Lees, of the Public Works Department, will be given a temporary commis- sion as Lieutenant, Royal Engineers..
(d) Your telegram of the 23rd December, inquiring as to the qualifica tions of Mr. L. E. Campbell, whom I recommended in my telegram of the 8th December for a temporary commission.
A reply will be sent shortly.
(e) Your telegram of the 24th December, as to requiring certificates of origin in respect of shipments from Norway, Sweden, Denmark, Holland. Switzerland, and Italy.
I am making inquiries on the subject. I may mention that in the body of the telegram the Straits Settlements, and not Ceylon, are mentioned, and I am proceed- ing on the assumption that a similar telegram intended for Ceylon has been sent to the Governor of the Straits Settlements by mistake.
Your telegram of the 24th December, containing a revised list of contraband of war.
The necessary instructions have been given.
(g) Your telegram of the 28th December, asking for particulars as to the valuation of the prize ship " Australia.”
The information has been given in my telegram of the 30th December.
2. On the 24th December I telegraphed to you, recommending Mr. G. Hazlerigg,
Registrar of the Supreme Court, for a temporary commission in the Army.
3. With reference to paragraph 1 (4) of my Confidential despatch of the 17th December,† and to your telegram of the 14th December, I telegraphed to you on the 24th December, expressing my opinion that shipments of plumbago direct to the United States should be allowed only on the guarantee of a British consular or diplomatic authority that the plumbago is for domestic use in America.
I
4 On the 26th December I telegraphed to you on the subject of the gift by the Sultan of the Maldive Islands of £2,000 towards the expenses of the war. was gratified to receive your acknowledgment of the gift by your telegram of 30th December.
5. With reference to your cipher telegram of 17th December, I am in com- munication with the Chairman of the Planters' Association and of the Estate Agents' Association on the subject of the depletion of the European staff on estates. I have from the commencement of the war been fully alive to the unwisdom of denuding the estates of their European superintendents, and will communicate further with you after hearing the views of the Associations.
6. With reference to your cipher telegram of 24th December and previous tele- graphic correspondence, on the subject of the Royal Garrison Artillery in Ceylon, I have to inform you that I am in course of raising an artillery section from the Colombo Town Guard of some 90 Europeans, who will commence their training on 4th Tanuary. When these men are trained, it will be possible, if such be the wish of
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His Majesty's Government, to release for home service a further draft of the regular garrison.
7. I have (with the full concurrence of the Officer Commanding the troops) granted indefinite leave, without pay, to the Ceylon Light Infantry Volunteers, who have thus been enabled to return to their civil employment. The only corps now mobilized (with the exception of a few men of the Ceylon Volunteer Medical Corps) are the Ceylon Artillery Volunteers and Ceylon Engineer Volunteers.
8. In continuation of paragraph 1 (b) of my despatch of 24th November,* I have to inform you that the controller of the business of Messrs. Freudenberg & Company continues to carry on the business with advantage to the Colony, and, at their mills, is engaged in the conversion of copra into coco-nut oil for the copra owners at a fixed price, a service very beneficial to the local copra producers.
I have, &c.,
ROBERT CHALMERS,
6499
No. 47.
THE GOVERNOR to THE SECRETARY OF STATE. (Received 3rd February, 1915.)
(Confidential.)
The Queen's House, Colombo,
Governor.
SIR,
Ceylon, 8th January, 1915. IN continuation of my Confidential despatch of the 31st ultimo,t I have the honour to acknowledge the receipt of the following telegraphio despatches:-
(a) Your telegram of the 30th December, intimating that the War Office will not press for the services of Mr. A. L. Cook, Engineer of Postal Telegraphs.
(b) Your telegrams of the 1st and 2nd January, as to the sale of the prize ship "Australia.”
I replied to these telegrams on the 2nd and 4th January.
(c) Your telegram of the 1st January, authorizing the release of Mr. Neubrunn, an Austrian subject employed in the Chinese Customs, who was detained here as a prisoner of war.
I informed you, in my telegram of the 5th instant, that I sanctioned his
release.
(d) Your cipher telegram of 30th December, making inquiries regard- ing a proposed telegraph installation.
I replied to this by my cipher telegram of 31st December, and, on receipt of your further telegram of 5th January, I telegraphed to you again on th January promising every assistance on the lines of your telegram, and informing you that I gathered that the Admiralty would select its own site and would bear the cost of its defence (if any).
2. On the 31st December, I telegraphed to you that if Mr. C. Harrison Jones, of the Civil Service, was offered a commission in the Army, I could spare his services.
3. I informed you by telegraph, on the 2nd January, that I had permitted the export of 60 tons of plumbago by the Morgan Crucible Company to Japan, on their producing a guarantee from the Japanese Government that the plumbago was required for the Imperial Steel Works. I enclose a copy of the correspondence between the Company and the Colonial Secretary.
4. With reference to paragraph 1 (d) of my Confidential despatch of the 31st December, † I telegraphed on the 6th January giving particulars as to Mr. Campbell, whom I have recommended for a temporary commission in the Army.
5. On the 8th January I informed you, by telegraph, that Second Lieutenant Ferguson, Royal Engineer Special Reserve, left for England on the 23rd December.
I have, &c.,
ROBERT CHALMERS,
Governor.
* No. 45.
+ No. 44.
I
No. 41.
+ No. 46.
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CEYLON.