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PUBLIC RECORD OFFICE

Reference -

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

C.O. 885 / 5 PUBLIC RECORD OFFICE, LONDON

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with reference to the proposal of the local Committee that the employment there of Chinese for combatant purposes should be tried as an experiment, I am directed to acquaint you, for his Lordship's information, that it appears to the Secretary of State for War that it would be judicious not to communicate at all with the Colony until after the Royal Commission, to whom the papers have been referred, have had the subject under consideration, and reported their views.

Mr. Secretary Childers would therefore deprecate any immediate communication to Sir J. P. Hennessy, except that the subject was under consideration.

I have, &c.

(Signed)

No. 42.

Office.

RALPH THOMPSON.

Royal Commission on Defence of British Possessions and Commerce Abroad to Colonial

(Confidential.) Sir,

13, Delahay Street, July 26, 1880.

I AM directed by the Royal Commission on the Defence of British Possessions and Commerce Abroad to inform you that they have now taken a large amount of evidence, and have considered generally the subject referred to them.

They have as yet, with slight exceptions, refrained from entering upon local questions affecting the defence of particular places; but have now, however, arrived at a stage of their inquiry at which, in order to be in a position to make specific recommendations, it becomes necessary to obtain information in greater detail than they now possess respecting the different places which have so far come prominently into notice.

Excluding the great Imperial fortresses, Malta, Gibraltar, Bermuda, and Halifax, as to which the Commission believe that full information is available, those places may be divided into two categories, according to the annexed list, and defined as follows:-

1. Ports which are of the highest importance as coaling and refitting stations, both for Her Majesty's ships and for the mercantile marine of Great Britain and her Colonial and Indian dependencies.

2. Ports on the great sea routes followed by British commerce, secondary to the more important places referred to in No. 1, some of which it is, however, highly desirable should be held as ports of refuge, at which ships could be coaled and refitted.

With regard to places mentioned in the first list, at some of which temporary defences have lately been erected, detailed Reports from competent officers are required on the measures to be taken for supplementing and strengthening existing works, which the Commission believe are by no means sufficiently secure. The Reports should also contain full information as to the strength of the garrisons requisite for their defence, and the manner in which those garrisons could be provided both in peace and war, with details of the assistance which may be expected from local levies, whether in the form of permanent militia or volunteer forces. The Reports should be accompanied by careful estimates of the expense of erecting the works, and providing their armaments and garrisons,

The Royal Commission are aware that information as to some of the places named in the two lists is already in the hands of the Secretary of State for War. They would, therefore, recommend that a copy of this communication should be forwarded to him, and that he should, after careful consideration of each case in his office, define the points on which further special information is needed, in order to supplement that which is already available at the War Office; and, inasmuch as most of these questions are of a professional and technical character, it appears desirable to the Commission that the Secretary of State for War should, as far as possible, undertake to obtain the necessary information.

I am desired to observe that the Royal Commission do not anticipate that the defences in any case will be of a large and expensive character, of the nature of a first class fortress; but more of that of small self-defensible works with limited garrisons, calculated to repel the attack of a small squadron, such as might possibly evade Her Majesty's fleet, and for the defence of which the local resources will largely contribute. They would, therefore, desire the information to be furnished under two heads :—

1. Under the supposition that the ports are to be used as ports of refuge and refitting stations, in which ships may lie in security.

2. Under the supposition that they are to be used only as depôts, at which ships may take in coals and provisions, while an enemy would be denied their use.

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Looking to the fact that inany of these places are remote and scattered over different parts of the world, some time must elapse before the required information can be collected. The Royal Commission are therefore desirous of calling attention at once to the necessity of procuring it, so that they may be enabled to complete their inquiry without needless delay.

The lists comprise the places in British territory which have been brought under the notice of the Commission as offering special advantages for the protection of British commerce or as coaling-stations for Her Majesty's navy; and they think it desirable that this opportunity should be taken to examine them all, so that, in the event of questions being raised hereafter as to the advisability of defending, or not defending, any of them, Her Majesty's Government may be fully informed of the reasons which have led to the selection of some and the rejection of others.

Some of the places mentioned will, no doubt, require defence; but the various Reports are required to enable the Commission to consider the relative merits of different ports, their recommendations as to which must depend very materially on the expenditure involved, on local conditions, on the strength of garrisons required to hold them, and the resources which may be available on the spot to aid in the provision of the garrisons.

I have, &c. (Signed)

HERBERT JEKYLL.

Inclosure in No. 42.

Lists of Places referred to in Letter of July 26, 1880.

Cape Town, Simon's Bay, Cape.

Port Louis, Mauritius. Colombo,

Trincomalee, Ceylon.

Singapore.

Sierra Leone. Gambia.

St. Helena. Ascension. Cyprus. Perim.

Galle, Ceylon.

Diego Garcia.t

Seychelles.

Cocos or Keeling Islands.‡

Penang, Straits.

(No. 1.)

Hong Kong.

Port Royal, Jamaica.

Esquimalt, British Columbia.

Aden, Dependency of India. Falkland Islands.

(No. 2.)

Labuan.

No. 43.

West

Thursday Island, Torres Straits.§ Fiji.

King George's Sound,

Australia.

Barbados.

St. Lucia.

Antigua.

Bahamas.

St. John's, Newfoundland.

The Right Hon. the Earl of Kimberley to Governor Sir G. F. Bowen, G.C.M.G.

(General.)

Downing Street, July 30, 1880.

Sir,

I HAVE the honour to acknowledge the receipt of your despatch No. 157 of the 31st March, requesting attention to your previous despatch No. 431 of the 19th December, in which you submitted for consideration a project for forming a rifle volunteer company in Mauritius.

I have been in communication with the Royal Commission on the Defence of British Possessions and Commerce Abroad and with the Secretary of State for War on the subject, and I have much pleasure in conveying to you the authority of Her Majesty to accept the

† Dependency of Mauritius.

Dependency of Ceylon. No. 6.

Luclosure 4 in No. 126 of “ Miscellaneous No. 39."

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Dependency of India.

◊ Dependency of Queensland.

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