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aware, from the telegrams which are received here daily from London, of the improvement that had taken place in the aspect of affairs on the Continent, and was at the same time much occupied with local business, I was glad to be able to defer my reply until I had an opportunity of going more carefully and fully into the whole matter than was then possible. To one of these despatches I did, however, address an answer, but it had reference almost exclusively to the political results that might follow the carrying out of a suggestion which it contained, viz., that King George's Sound-or Albany, as the town and port are called

-should cease to be used as a place of call for the European mails.

4. Having now given my careful and attentive consideration to the subject, and to the various points in connection with it which are brought under my notice in your despatches before quoted, I have the honour to lay before you the conclusion at which I have arrived on the important questions to which they refer the defence of the Colony in the event of war.

5. It is hardly necessary to consider the possibility of the Colony being attacked for purposes of occupation, though there are places on our northern coasts which it might suit the French to occupy for penal purposes, or the Germans for the establishment of the naval station they have been so long seeking for in the East. It seems, however, to be assumed that the Colony runs great risk of being attacked, perhaps by a small squadron, or even a single ship, with a view to the destruction of public property or the levying of contributions.

6. I am anxious not to overlook any form of danger to which the Colony may be exposed, but I confess I fail to see that this is one against which any special precaution need be taken. The destruction of munitions of war, and supplies liable to be used in support of it, has always been recognized as a legitimate operation, but to destroy public property merely as such-buildings, railways, roads, &c.—where no strategical necessity exists for it, and where, as would generally be the case, it could not be effected without serious injury to private property, is not, so far as I am aware, ever attempted in these days. The practice of levying contributions on places which, not being fortified, offer no resis- tance, has, I believe, been discontinued, except in the case of supplies requisitioned for the support of an army.

7. In fact it would appear to be the custom of modern warfare to avoid any aggres- sion which inflicts injury on private property, other than ships. Such was the policy followed by us in the Russian war, and, in principle, by the Americans in their civil war, though circumstances introduced an element of bitterness into their struggle which did not conduce to its strict observance. Even in the recent war between Russia and Turkey, which is alleged to have been conducted with unusual circumstances of barbarity, I have not heard of any instance of Turkish ships having molested unfortified towns, nor have I heard that either side attempted to levy contributions on places which did not resist them, except the usual requisition of supplies before alluded to.

8. In view, however, of the possibility of such an attack being made on the port of Fremantle, it has been proposed that four guns should be placed in a work on Arthur's Head, to be manned by volunteers. Such a work would not, however, afford any defence. against a landing, which can be effected without the slighest difficulty in ordinary weather on four-fifths of our coast-line, nor would it be any protection to our shipping, the ordinary anchorage for which is in Gage's Roads, between three and four miles from the shore. Moreover, if the port were provided with any armament, its existence, even if no use were made of it, would justify, and would probably invite, an attack, from which, if undefended, it would be exempt.

9. The safety of our shipping can be easily provided for otherwise. Most of our trade goes from Fremantle, and, in the event of war, the lead and wool now shipped from the north could be brought down in small coasters to this port, which would then become the only, as it is now the principal, port of the Colony. I have said that vessels usually anchor in Gage's Roads, but if a hostile cruizer were known to be on our coasts, of which timely notice could be obtained from Rottnest Island, they could with the greatest ease he towed inside the reefs to Cockburn Sound, where, the buoys that mark the channels being removed, nothing could possibly follow them. A cruizer might venture to send in armed boats to destroy them, but she would run the risk of being caught in a trap by any of our ships of war, and I think our volunteers and pensioners might be trusted to give a good account of any armed parties that were dispatched from her with such an object.

10. In the foregoing remarks I have dealt with Fremantle, the port from which almost all the trade of the Colony is carried on, and for the reasons I have given I am of opinion that the probability of any attack being made on it in the event of war is very remote, whilst if attempted on the shipping in harbour it may be successfully resisted or

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