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(Confidential.) Sir,

103

No. 207.

Admiralty to Colonial Office.

Admiralty, Whitehall, June 26, 1878. WITH reference to your letter of the 15th instant,* inclosing an extract from a report from Lieutenant-General Sir Selby Smyth, in which he calls attention to the defenceless state of Nanaimo, Vancouver Island, I am commanded by my Lords Com- missioners of the Admiralty to acquaint you, for the information of Sir Michael Hicks Beach, that my Lords do not consider that any defences are necessary at Nanaimo, as it is not a Government depôt for coals, and no coals are stored there for naval purposes.

I am,

&c.

ROBERT HALL.

(Signed)

No. 208.

The Right Hon. Sir M. E. Hicks Beach, Bart., to the Earl of Dufferin.

(Confidential.)

My Lord,

Downing Street, June 26, 1878.

IN reply to your telegram received on the 22nd instant, I have the honour to inform your Lordship that I have requested the Lords Commissioners of the Admiralty to instruct the senior naval officer at Esquimalt by telegraph to deliver the naval guns in store at that place on the requisition of the Dominion Government.

(Signed)

I have, &c.

M. E. HICKS BEACH.

P.S.-I inclose copies of two letters which have since been received from the Admiralty on this subject, and I have to inform your Lordship that on this day I sent you a telegram in the following words :-

"Admiralty have issued instructions requested in your telegram of the 21st June." M. E. H. B.

No. 209.

Colonial Office to Admiralty, War Office, and Admiral Sir A. Milne, G.C.B.

(Secret and Confidential.) Sir,

Downing Street, June 26, 1878. WITH reference to previous correspondence respecting the defence of Esquimalt and Victoria, I am directed by the Secretary of State for the Colonies to acquaint you, for the information of, &c., that a further telegram has been received from the Governor-General of Canada, of which the following is a paraphrase:--

"This Government have been persuaded by me to erect a third battery for the defence of Esquimalt on Fisguard Island, in addition to those now erected on McAulay's Point and Beacon Hill."

I am, &c.

(Signed)

R. H. MEADE.

* No. 173.

+ No. 185.

Nos. 199 and 205.

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