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Appendix No. 4.

VANCOUVER ISLAND.

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(Confidential.)

420

Inclosure 4 in No. 124.

Report on the Defence of British Columbia.

1. "GENERAL question of vulnerability and means of defence."

II. "The means to be adopted for placing the harbours of Esquimalt and Victoria in an efficient state of defence, by permanent works, the extent to which the temporary works may be made available being reported."

III. "Whether these two harbours may be considered independently, or whether, on the other hand, a scheme of defence must necessarily embrace both, bearing in mind that Esquimalt, as an Imperial station, is of primary importance."

IV. "The garrison required to be permanently maintained, and the manner in which such garrison should be constituted, stating the extent to which assistance in this respect may be expected from local resources.”

V. "The advisability of providing defences for the coaling-station at Nanaimo, from which the dockyard at Esquimalt and steam-ships navigating the Northern Pacific along the coast of America are chiefly supplied with coal.”

I. "General question of vulnerability and means of defence"

on the

Referring to the last paragraph of the letter of instruction (B), herewith attached, measures to be taken for the defence of the Pacific coast of Her Majesty's dominions in the event of war," we are directed to bear in mind its distance from any naval arsenal, and the difficulties which must therefore attend hostile operations directed against it. I consider it my duty to bring to your notice the following facts, which show that the difficulties of defence are greater than the facilities for attack, and that the bases of hostile operations are much nearer than is implied in the paragraph above mentioned. Nevertheless, I am of opinion that it is by no means impracticable to place the few vital points in a position of security by the emplacement of powerful guns, supplemented by torpedoes and telegraph signals; and that a comparatively small garrison, aided by local resources and the completion of communication by the Canadian Pacific Railway, would maintain the integrity of the Empire, which otherwise, I respectfully submit, will be endangered at no distant day from internal as well as external sources of disintegration.

With regard to the nearest naval arsenal and base of hostile operations, the United States' naval establishment at Meare's Island, and the ordnance establishments at Benicia, they are admirably situated as a base, and protected by the effective and heavily-armed works in San Francisco Harbour; and though the political system of the United States does not tend to efficiency in dockyards and arsenals, we must bear in mind the extraordinary energy of the people of the United States, their wealth, and power of rapid production of war material when once engaged in war.

The Government naval and ordnance establishments at Meare's Island and Benicia would be immediately and largely supplemented by the private enterprise of the large forging establishments and factories, and the enormous material and shipping interests of the State of California, which is also connected by railroad with the coal and iron districts and arsenals of the Eastern States. A second railway is already in progress, the North Pacific Railroad, with a terminus on Puget Sound, where coal is being worked (at Seattle). In fact, within two or three years there will be five lines of railways, besides a network of telegraphs, which will bring the Pacific coast into direct communication with the Eastern States, in addition to the ordinary sea route from San Francisco to the Straits of Fuca, which would enable the United States to launch a large body of troops and war material from a point not many miles from our frontier before any assistance could be obtained from the nearest British base of supply, India.

Our only telegraphic communication between British Columbia and England, or even Canada, passes through the United States. This will be remedied at an early date, no doubt, and the Canadian Pacific Railroad will be pushed forward to completion. That portion already decided upon, along a part of the Valley of the Fraser to the navigable waters of that river, will open up a stock and grain- producing tract which would otherwise have been tapped by the United States' North Pacific line into Washington Territory, upon which our food supplies for Vancouver Island are now dependent, a state of affairs rendering serious defence impossible.

The United States' Territory of Alaska being without a white population need not, at present, be considered as a base of hostile operations; but the Russians have lately established a fortified base of operations on their Asiatic Pacific coast, in direct communication with St. Petersburgh. During the late complications, when war seemed imminent, a Russian fleet assembled in San Francisco Harbour; and while the British squadron was engaged watching a South American contest, a Russian man-of-war steamed up to Esquimalt Harbour, and could have destroyed the solitary gun-vessel lying there before she got up steam, burnt the dockyard, and shelled the town. This was previous to the construction of the present land defences, which are, however, far from complete, and should be added to, much more powerfully armed, and have telegraph signals to give notice of approaching vessels. All these, and the following considerations, point to the necessity of completing the defences of Esquimalt:-

1. The cession of the central channel and Island of San Juan would enable the United States to confine us to a channel in one part only 2 miles wide, by placing batteries on James and Henry Islands. There is a channel closer to the Vancouver Island shore, by which such batteries could be avoided; but that channel is intricate and unsuited to the general purposes of navigation.

Still more difficult would it be for the passage of a crippled vessel seeking a graving-dock or harbour of refuge through the inland waters of the Archipelago, or Gulf of Georgia.

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