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PUBLIC RECORD OFFICE

C.O.

Reference :-

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PUBLIC RECORD OFFICE, LONDON

ALLY WITHOUT PERMISSION OF THE BE REPRODUCED PHOTOGRAPHIC- COPYRIGHT PHOTOGRAPH-NOT TO

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4.) No service under a Colonial Government subsequent to retirement from the army shall increase the charge for an officer's retired pay upon Imperial funds.

(5.) These rules may be applied to officers now in Colonial employment.

I am to add that my Lords will not press further for the restriction of the Colonial employment of an officer on the active list to five years.

I am, &c.,

The Financial Secretary, War Office.

(Signed) R. E. WELBY.

P.S. This letter has been communicated to the Board of Admiralty with an intimation that my Lords assent to the application of like rules to naval officers.

N.B. The foregoing letter with other correspondence on this subject is included in a, Return to an Address of the House of Lords (H.L. 85), May 1887.

SECTION VII.

C. Summary Statements submitted in regard to Colonies represented.

No. 75.

MEMORANDUM ON THE DEFENCES OF NEWFOUNDLAND.

In connexion with the subject of national defences now before the Colonial Conference, we beg to submit a statement of the position occupied by the Colony of Newfoundland in this respect.

Its geographical position must ever make it a factor of the highest importance in considering the question of the defences of British North America. Dominating the Gulf of St. Lawrence, its possession and defence as a British State are vital to the security of Canada, and hence the manifest necessity of its being incorporated in any plan of defence undertaken on behalf of the Dominion. Lying 1,100 miles east of New York, 550 miles east of Halifax, and being the most eastern point of the western world, its general strategic importance as a naval station in the event of war is too obvious to require explanation.

It is, of course, altogether in relation to attack from sea that the defence of New- foundland must be considered, and it is therefore mainly to this view that we direct our observations.

In 1857 a volunteer movement was set on foot, and within a reasonable time five companies were organized, and in due course they attained to a very satisfactory state of efficiency. The number was about 500 men, and a much larger force would in time have been enrolled. But in 1870, when the Imperial troops (about 500 in number) were withdrawn, the arms of the volunteers which had been presented by the Imperial Government were also taken away, although we believe an offer to purchase them was made by the Colonial Government. This remarkable policy had naturally so dis- couraging an effect, that the dissolution of the volunteer organization inmediately followed. Since then there has been no local force except that of about 100 police, which is quite equal to the ordinary purposes of our internal requirements.

What the character of the necessary defences of St. John's should be (and we do not apprehend that our contemplations for the present will need to take a wider range) we, of course, are at present unable to explain. This is necessarily a question for pro- fessional examination and report, but the natural advantages of the place in connexion with a plan of defence are marked and important; a narrow entrance with hills 500 feet high on each side furnish commanding conditions for defence, which, we believe, could be efficiently secured at a very moderate cost. But the retention of this harbour intact must be placed beyond the range of contingencies, for its possession by an enemy would involve national consequences of far-reaching importance.

No doubt any enemy obtaining a foothold would be driven out in time, but the operation of war being so rapid and destructive in the present day, incalculable national disaster may result even from a short occupation of so salient a position as that of St. John's.

It must be borne in mind that all the telegraph cables under British control have their western ocean terminus at Newfoundland about 40 miles from St. John's. These therefore furnish the only safe and reliable means of communication with the British possessions in North America in a case of possible hostilities, a fact in itself of command- ing interest and significance. But how widely pervading is the bearing of these considerations when we take them in connexiou with the communications through Canada to the Australian possessions, which will be an almost certain development of the early future. Mr. Sandford Fleming's masterly address to the Conference on this subject places the question beyond the domain of speculation, and in the consideration

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of the agencies that are to secure the firm and close combination of the mother country and the outlying British States, the proposal that Vancouver shall be the half-way house between England and Australia must occupy an assured and prominent place. Here then the cables landing on the Newfoundland coast come into view as of the first importance, as the controlling link by which alone England could be safe in her com- munication with the Dominion and Australia in time of war, for the cables now connecting England with the Fast are exposed to hazards at so many points that no safe calculation can be made on their remaining available. This is the issue at stake in the defence of Newfoundland, altogether apart from the advantages of having St. John's as a port for naval resort with its unique situation on the Atlantic, and the fact that it possesses a dry dock 600 feet long with capacity for the largest class of ships. It also has facilities for the repairs of wood or iron ships, and with such advantages, even in a special sense, it cannot be lost sight of in any scheme of national defence that

may be projected for co-operative acceptance by the Imperial Government and the British possessions abroad.

It may be well here to state that when the first Atlantic cable was projected the shortest span was naturally chosen, that between Ireland and Newfoundland as in the then conditions of electrical science, this was the extreme length over which it was possible to transmit the signals, and though currents can now be transmitted over longer distances, the shorter line retains some yet unrivalled advantages. Through this line what is called the duplex principle is practicable, admitting of the simultaneous transmission of messages from both ends of the cable, and thus greatly increasing its capacity, while no similar working is possible on the longer lines to the continent of America.

For the present, at least, this important condition applies exclusively to the Atlantic cables between Valentia and Newfoundland, and materially enhances their efficacy and power for the interchange of communication.

In close connexion with the foregoing is the necessity for the establishment of a coaling station at St. John's, for though Halifax is already indicated for this purpose, the importance of coaling facilities at St. John's stands on independent grounds, reasons of which we have already explained in speaking of the defences.

It

may further be noted that a coaling establishment at St. John's involves no serious financial demands, for advantage might, no doubt, be taken of existing coal depôts which, by some changes and extensions, could be made, at a very moderate cost, to meet all the necessary demands on this account.

We are not in a position to state to what extent the local Government would co. operate in the measures of defence we have here pointed out. The subject to this time

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has not been considered, and we think the first step should be an inspection by a competent Imperial officer of the natural conditions, and the nature and extent of the means required for effective defence. When that report is made it will be more con- venient to consider the financial obligations; but where such broad national interests are involved an equitable view will not, we think, assign large share to the account of the Colony. We, however, feel assured that in any general plan of defence tending to the great object of the unity and stability of the Empire to which we are proud to belong, the Colony we represent will contribute freely, according to its means, to these great objects, to which it will be the high ambition of this Conference to show to the world that they are heartily and loyally committed.

ROBERT THORBURN. London, April 27, 1887.

A. SHEA.

(Signed)

No. 76.

March 1887.

A STATEMENT OF SOME OF THE CONTRIBUTIONS MADE BY THE DOMINION OF CANADA IN AID OF A SYSTEM OF DEFENCE. Canada consists of all the British provinces in North America and the North-west Territories.

The provinces are:-Nova Scotia, New Brunswick, Prince Edward Island, Quebec, Ontario, Manitoba, British Columbia.

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