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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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Enclosure in No. 2.

MEMORANDUM from the Ion, the MINISTER OF DEFENCE to the Hon. the PREMIER.

Melbourne, October 14, 1885. 1. The several Australasian Colonies are now engaged in re-organizing their defences, and to this end have secured, and will continue to require, the services of Imperial Naval and Military Officers both on the active, half pay, and retired list.

2. It has, however, been found that Naval Officers on the half pay, and Military Officers on the retired, list cannot without serious pecuniary loss accept positions in the Colonies.

3. This arises from the following regulations of the Admiralty and the War Office, viz. :-

(a.) A Naval Officer on half pay, while so employed, loses his promotion for the time,

but receives his half pay.

(b.) A Military Officer on the active list "seconded" for Colonial service forfeits bis

pay, but receives his promotion.

(c.) A Naval Officer on the retired list (in some cases at least) receives his retired

pay.

(d.) A Military Officer on the retired list forfeits his retired pay under certain

conditions.

There are certain exceptions to the above rules, and there may be others unknown to

me :-

(a.) The position of honorary colonel of a regiment in the Army is held by many who have other official appointments, and yet in no case is the salary attached thereto forfeited or held in abeyance, although Lord Cardwell and other Ministers of the Crown have frequently declared such appointments to be "of the nature of pensions."

(b.) The pension of Commander C. B. Payne, R.N., and other Naval Officers employed by the Victorian Government, was withheld from them for some time. It was, however, finally decided that they were "in future to receive "their retired pay as well as a repayment of the amounts hitherto with- "held from them." Vide letter A.G. No. 33, Admiralty, 3rd March

1873.

(c.) Major-General C. Carey, retired R.E., receives his pension, also salary for his

position under the Local Government Board.

4. It will thus be seen that while the Naval Officer on half pay receives his half pay while serving in the Colony, but loses his promotion, the Military Officer on the active list loses his pay, but receives his promotion, under similar circumstances.

That, while the Retired Naval Officer receives his retired pay, the Retired Military Officer loses his retired pay for such portion of his service as may have been previously dassed in the Colonial employment when lent by the Imperial Government, and cannot after returning to private life revert to that retired pay he would have been entitled to had he at once taken it up and not entered the Colonial Civil Service. And, as shown above, there are permitted exceptions to all these rules.

5. It must also be borne in mind that an Officer while in Colonial employment is liable to miss opportunities of distinction and promotion by employment on active service. And in the case of Naval Officers, who do not count the time served in Colonial employment as an equivalent for active service in the Royal Navy, there is little inducement for them to run the risk of losing any opportunity that might arise in their own service.

6. I also desire to point out that Retired Military Officers could draw their pay-

(a.) If they elected to lead an idle life, and would not forfeit it by anything disgraceful

short of felony.

(b.) If they took employment in commercial or banking establishments.

In both cases, (a) and (b), the Empire would lose the benefit of their military training.

any

But if they take employment in any Colony under its Government in capacity, although not military, they have apparently to elect between two alter- natives, viz., (1) either to forfeit for life any increment of pension earned while on the active list and lent by the Imperial Government to the Colony; or (2) to forfeit absolutely all retired pay while serving under a Colonial Government. This will involve the greater hardship if, as appears to be the case, officers who have been

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offered by the War Office military appointments in the Colonies at the request of the Colonial Governments have been allowed to accept these offers without being informed that by so doing they incurred serious disabilities, affecting for life their retired pay; and thus what appeared to them at the time an honourable sphere of work would ultimately prove most disastrous from a financial point of view; and this practically prevents the Colonies giving them employment and utilizing their past experience,

7. This seems a hardship to many officers who have entered the service under certain regulations; since then, practically, compulsory retirement has been put in force, and it would seem inequitable that an officer should be deprived of the retired pay which he has fairly earned by service in the Imperial Army because he takes employ- ment in a Colony.

8. And it is injurious and prejudicial to the Colonies, seeing that, if this rule were altered, many Retired and Half-pay Officers might come to the Colonies, and, in the event of war, would be of great value in officering the Colonial Forces, which would then be largely increased.

The want of such a reserve of qualified officers was much felt during the recent war preparations, when the defence forces were largely increased; and too much stress cannot be placed upon this important point, whether looked at from a Colonial or Imperial standpoint."

9. The question would seem to be, what is the difference between service in the Imperial Forces and service in the Colonial Forces; and I would submit that, if federation is ever to be an accomplished fact, it must be based on the broad principle that the Colonies are as much a part of the Empire as Great Britain itself, and, in fact, that England is England all the world over, and, therefore, that any sailor or soldier serving in any part of Her Majesty's dominions confers a benefit on the Empire at large, and, consequently, should be entitled to equal privileges with all other sailors and soldiers, no matter whether employed in Great Britain or the Colonies.

10. If officers were allowed to take service in the Colonies, and receive their retired or half pay,

it will induce men to leave the Army, and thus promote the flow of promotion.

11. Finally, I would refer to the recent action of the Colonies as regards the Soudan expedition, which has so much tended to draw still closer the bonds with the mother country; and I cannot but express a confident hope that when the Home Government have a matter which so affects the Colonies fairly put before it, means will be found to at once remove the rules complained of.

12. I urge this to be pressed with the more confidence as the Imperial Government have so frequently, both by word and letter, assured the Colonies that they are in every way willing and anxious to further their efforts to organize their defences. In fact, these defences, so far as we have gone at present, are as much for Imperial as for Colonial benefit, Melbourne, Sydney, &c., affording secure places in time of war, owing to the security obtained by the forts and troops armed and equipped by their respective Governments for vessels of the Imperial Navy to refit and coal,

It, therefore, does not seem too much to ask that the Imperial Government should remove, as far as can be, all obstacles by which officers of the Army and Navy, whether on the active or retired list, are, to a great extent, prohibited from accepting Colonial employment, and thus the benefit of their matured experience is lost, not only to the immediate Colony in need of such help but to the Empire at large.

SIR,

No. 3.

COLONIAL OFFICE to ADMIRALTY, and WAR OFFICE.

Downing Street, January 29, 1886. I AM directed by Colonel Stanley to inform you that the Government of the Dominion of Canada,* through the High Commissioner, and the Governor of Victoria,† have formally called the attention of Her Majesty's Government to the fact that naval officers on the half-pay, and military officers on the retired list, are, by the regulations of the Admiralty and War Office, but not, it is alleged, by any Act of the Legislature, subjected to serious pecuniary loss if they accept positions in the Colonies in connexion with the local defence forces.

• No. 1.

† No. 2.

B 3