66
No. 79.
The Secretary to the Royal Commission on the Defence of British Possessions and Commerce Abroad to Colonial Office.
Sir,
13, Delahay Street, December 23, 1879. I AM directed by the Royal Commission on the Defence of British Possessions and Commerce Abroad, to acknowledge the receipt of your letter of the 12th instant,* inclosing a copy of a letter from Mr. Hastings C. Huggins, who offers to be examined before the Commission with reference to the defence of British Guiana.
I am to say in reply that the Commission will be happy to consider any suggestions which Mr. Huggins' long experience of the Colony enables him to offer, if he will have the goodness to put them in writing.
The Commissioners will then be in a position to decide whether it is desirable to 'call Mr. Huggins as a witness.
gir.
No. 80.
•
I have, &c. (Signed)
H. JEKYLL
Colonial Office to Hastings C. Huggins, Esq.
Downing Street, December 27, 1879. WITH reference to your letter of the 26th November,t offering to give evidence before the Royal Commission on the Defence of British Possessions and Commerce Abroad, respecting the defence of British Guiana, and to the letter from this Department of the 12th instant, I am directed by the Secretary of State for the Colonies to inform you that a reply§ has been received from the Royal Commission, stating that the Commission will be happy to consider any suggestions which your long experience of the Colony may enable you to offer, if you will have the goodness to put them in writing, and that the Commis- sioners will then be in a position to decide whether it is desirable to call you as a witness.
I am, &c.
No. 81.
Circular to all Colonies.
(Signed)
R. H. MEADE.
Sir,
Downing Street, December 29, 1879. SINCE the date of my Circular despatch of the 21st October,|| acquainting you with the appointment of a Royal Commission to inquire into the state of the defences of the more important Colonial ports and naval stations, and the best mode of placing them in a thoroughly secure condition, it has been decided that the Commission should be called the Royal Commission on the Defence of British Possessions and Commerce Abroad. I have therefore to request that you will so designate the Commission in any communications which you may have occasion to make respecting it.
I havé, &c.
M. E. HICKS BEACH.
67
information, copies of the telegrams which have passed between his Excellency Sir Garnet Wolseley and myself on the subject.
(Telegraphic.)
I have, &c.
(Signed)
H. B. E. FRERE
Inclosure 1 in No. 82.
Governor Sir B. Frere to Sir G. Wolseley.
Cape Town, November 16, 1879. I HAVE received instructions from Secretary of State by mail arrived this morning to appoint as soon as possible a Committee composed of officers named by your Excellency and this Government, to report on the subject referred to in my cypher telegram of this date. The Secretary of State presses for an early answer, and if your Excellency could nominate the officers you would select at once, they might go to work and prepare estimates, &c., to be sent to you for opinion before going home.
(Telegraphic.)
Inclosure 2 in No. 82.
Governor Sir B. Frere to Sir G. Wolseley.
Cape Town, November 16, 1879.
TO effect that subject referred to open telegram of same date, was the preparation of estimates of cost of works required to give complete effect to proposal already submitted for defence of Cape Peninsula including Table and Simon's Bays.
(Telegraphic.)
Inclosure a in No. 82.
Sir G. Wolseley to Governor Sir B. Frere.
Head-Quarters Camp, beyond Fort Oliphants, November 22, 1879.
I HAVE received your Excellency's two telegrams, one open and the other in cypher, of the 16th November, but I am at a loss how to act upon them as your Excellency does not tell me either the number or the rank of the officers that you inform me I am asked to name, or whether I am to name the President of the Committee, or whether the President of the Committee is to be a military officer. The Committee, as far as I can gather from your Excellency's telegrams, should, it appears to me, be a purely military or a military and naval Committee, and should therefore, I presume, be appointed
by me,
However this may be, knowing as little as I do regarding the proposed Committee, I could not either name the officers as you ask me to do, or appoint the Committee without having the Secretary of State's instructions communicated to me. Will your Excellency kindly telegraph them to me, or the purport of them, including necessary particulars, and Bay whether they are from Secretary of State for Colonies or for War.
If
you wish for any information at once on engineering questions, Colonel Hassard will give you his opinion.
(Signed)
No. 82.
Governor the Right Hon. Sir H. B. E. Frere, Bart., G.C.B., G.C.S.I., to the Right Hon. Bir Michael Hicks Beach, Bart.-(Received December 29.) (Secret.) Sir,
Government House, Cape Town, November 29, 1879.
I HAVE the honour to acknowledge the receipt of your Secret despatch of the 22nd October, on the subject of the defences of the Cape Peninsula, and to inclose, for your
↑ No. 71.
f No. 79.
⚫ No. 71.
+ No. 63.
No. 42.
¶ No. 46.
(Telegraphic.)
Inclosure 4 in No. 82.
Governor Sir B. Frere to Sir G. Wolseley.
Cape Town, November 29, 1879.
YOUR telegram of 22nd received. Searetary of State for Colonies sends single copy of mass of printed correspondence regarding defence of Table Mountain Peninsula; correspondence relates mainly to works generally approved by successive Commanders-in-chief and Defence Committees, in part executed, and their completion awaiting the decision of the Royal Commission now sitting. Secretary of State says to me, under date the 22nd October :-
PUBLIC RECORD OFFICE
Reference:-
mmmmim C.O. 885
4 PUBLIC RECORD OFFICE, LONDON
ALLY WITHOUT PERMISSION OF THE BE REPRODUCED PHOTOGRAPHIC-
COPYRIGHT PHOTOGRAPH-NOT TO
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