540
PUBLIC RECORD OFFICE
C.O. 885
Reference :-
6
PUBLIC RECORD OFFICE, LONDON
ALLY WITHOUT PERMISSION OF THE BE REPRODUCED PHOTOGRAPHIC- COPYRIGHT PHOTOGRAPH-NOT TO
216
made. They think, however, that they would be in a better position to follow and advise upon the general military policy of the Colonies if the recommendations were always communicated to them, accompanied, if necessary, by the confidential opinions of the Governments and Governors thereon.
19. In conclusion, the Committee are led to refer, by the prominence which bas of late been given to the question of Federal defence, to the mutual co-operation of the It will be obvious that at present such Colonies for this purpose in time of war. co-operation must be mainly confined to adjacent Colonies, such as those of Australia, and in a smaller degree those of South Africa. In Australia this subject has been considered with happy results by the Federal Military Conferences of 1894 and 1896, and more recently at a meeting of Premiers at Sydney.
Doubtless a time will come when the increasing strength and resources of the self- governing Colonies will enable them to materially assist the mother country, by placing at her disposal for operations any quarter of the globe bodies of troops formed from the excellent material of strong, self-reliant colonists, but at present the development of their own vast territories in time of peace, and the effective protection of them in time of war, is undoubtedly the best contribution the Colonies can offer to Imperial defence. To this, however, there is an important exception. England may be engaged in the future, as she has frequently been in the past, in a war which carries with it no danger of attack on the Colonies. In such a case the offer of assistance from them would be prized, as it has been on more than one occasion, not only for its real value, but also as evidence of that solidarity on which the greatness of the British Empire must ultimately
M. NATHAN,
rest.
December 31, 1896,
Sin,
Secretary, Colonial Defence Committee.
APPENDIX IX.
Australian Mails.
GENERAL POST OFFICE to COLONIAL OFFICE. (Received July 2nd, 1897.)
General Post Office, London, 1st July 1897.
I AM directed by the Postmaster-General to ask you to lay before Mr. Secretary Chamberlain the under-mentioned facts about a difficulty which has arisen in the prepara- tion of the time-tables for the Eastern and Australian Mail Services under the contract recently concluded with the Peninsular and Oriental Steam Navigation Company. The mails for and from India, China, and Australia are carried in the same ship between Brindisi and Aden in both directions, and the mails for and from China and Australia are carried together between Aden and Colombo. The new contract will continue this arrangement, and it is therefore necessary so to prepare the time-tables for the several routes that the homeward, Australian, and China mails will connect at Colombo, and that these combined mails will connect with the Indian mails at Aden.
There will probably not be any difficulty about the time-table for the outward service, which will work out approximately as follows:-
Leave London
-
"
Friday. Brindisi Sunday, 2 days from London.
Monday, 10 Arr. Aden
Arr. Bombay, Saturday, 15 days. Arr. Colombo, Monday, 17 days.
>>
"
217
For the homeward service the Peninsular and Oriental Company have suggested a time-table on the following lines:-
Leave Brisbane Mouday.
"
Sydney Melbourne -
-
Tuesday.
19
13
Adelaide Albany
Wednesday. Leave Shanghai Thursday. Sunday.
Arrive Colombo Leave
*
Tuesday.
Hong Kong Saturday.
Singapore Thursday.
Wednesday.
"J
Thursday. Leave Bombay, Saturday.
Arrive Aden, Thursday.
London, Sunday.
""
Such an arrangement of the service would suit most of the places interested; but the They Australian Colonies objected to it, as involving a call at Albany on Sunday. suggested a departure from Adelaide on Saturday, but this is objected to by India, as the corresponding departure from Bombay on Monday would be inconvenient to a great part of that country. A further objection to the Australian suggestion is the late arrival in London which would be involved. Mails brought by the Peninsular and Oriental steamers and by the special train from Brindisi would, during the fair season, be due in London on Tuesday, and during the south-west monsoon on Wednesday. But mails brought by the Orient steamers (which will not perform the voyage quite so quickly as those of the Peninsular and Oriental Company) and by the ordinary trains across Italy and France would not arrive until Wednesday, even in the fair season, and not until Thursday during the monsoon, so that a reply by the next outgoing mail would, in many cases, be impossible.
These difficulties were pointed out to the Australian post offices, and the Postmaster- General has just received a telegram stating that all the Colonies would accept a departure from Adelaide on Friday, except Western Australia, which still advocates- Saturday. But a Friday departure from Adelaide would involve a departure from Bombay on Sunday, which the Indian Government have already stated to be out of the question, and the departure from Hong Kong would also be on Sunday, to which arrangement there would certainly be much opposition in that Colony.
In the circumstances, it seems to the Postinaster-General that either the Peninsular and Oriental Company's suggestion set forth above must be adopted, the protest of Western Australia being overruled, or else that the present day of departure from Adelaide (Wednesday) must be maintained. In the latter case, the corresponding days of departure would be :—
From Brisbane
37
Sydney
511
*
"J
Melbourne
Shanghai Hong Kong Singapore Colombo Bombay
-
Saturday.
Monday.
-
Tuesday.
-
Monday.
Friday.
-
Wednesday.
Wednesday. Friday.
There is reason to think that the Indian Government would consent to this arrangement, and, though an arrival in London on Saturday would, in some respects, he inconvenient, the Postmaster-General would be disposed to agree to it, if no better solution of the difficulty can be suggested.
The Duke of Norfolk desires to learn what are Mr. Chamberlain's views on the subject, and, as an early settlement of the time-table is very desirable, his Grace will be glad to receive a reply to this letter as soon as inay be convenient.
I am, &c.
S. WALPOLE.
13
Shanghai, Wednesday 33
Hong Kong, Saturday 29
Arr. Singapore, Sunday 23 days.
Arr. Albany, Friday,
"
23
91
"
"
Sydney, Wednesday, 33
28 days. Adelaide, Monday, 31 Melbourne, Tuesday, 32
"
"
*
23
Brisbane, Thursday, 34
15
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