CAB7-4 — Page 454

Page 454

Page 454

Appendix No. 4.

VANCOUVER ISLAND.

426

The Secretary of State for War will also be glad to receive any views you may form generally on the measures to be taken for the defence of the Pacific coast of Her Majesty's dominions in the event of war, bearing in mind its distance from any established naval arsenal, and the difficulties which must therefore attend hostile operations directed against it.

To Colonel Lovell, C.B.,

I have, &c.

(Signed)

J. L. A. SIMMONS, General.

Commanding R.E., Halifax, N.S.

(C.)

Strength of the Volunteer Militia of British Columbia, and amount of able-bodied men available for training on emergency.

Military District No. 11, Victoria, British Columbia, September 24, 1879.

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I have the honour, in accordance with your instructions, to report that the strength of the active militia in the Province of British Columbia is as follows:

1

Authorized Number.

Actual Number.

Officers.

Non-Com. Officers and Men.

Officers.

Non-Com. Officers and

Men.

Victoria Battery, Garrison Artillery

No. 1 Company Rifles, Victoria

No. 2

"

Garrison Artillery, New Westminster Rifle Company,

31

23

>

Nanaimo

Total

::::::

20 Co to co do cr

5

85

3

3

42

3

42

2

30

3

40

3

40

2009

2

31

2

2

1

12****

50

1 1

34

25

34

23

19

279

12

197

The authorized strength of the Victoria Garrison Artillery has only recently been increased from 3 officers and 50 non-commissioned officers and gunners to 5 officers and 85 non-commissioned officers and gunners. The uniforms for this increase have not yet arrived. As soon as they are received the strength will be brought up to number authorized.

I have the honour further to report that I have made a careful estimate of the number of men capable of bearing arms that could be enrolled, should an emergency arise and their services be required for defence of the places mentioned, and fix the numbers as follows:-

At Victoria, including the city and district and the town and district of Esquimalt, 700; At Nanaimo, including town and district and Comax and Cowichan districts, 350;

At New Westminster, city and district, including Burrard Inlet, 350.

Beyond the districts mentioned, excepting the mining village of Baskerville, Stanley, and Cassiar, the population is so scattered that there are very few men who could, with safety, leave their homes, for the most part being without assistance and too far separated for neighbours to aid or relieve each other, few men could leave their homes and families.

From the mining villages a small addition might be made to the numbers I have given, but several weeks would be required to enrol men and bring them to the coast.

If time admitted and arms were available, an auxiliary force of 1,000 Indians could, I have no doubt, be raised.

I have, &c. (Signed)

C. T. DUPONT, Captain,

Acting Deputy Adjutant-General.

Inclosure 5 in No. 124.

Lieutenant-General Sir E. Selby Smyth to the Minister of Militia and Defence.

Sir,

Ottawa, November 8, 1879. LIEUTENANT-COLONEL STRANGE, Royal Artillery, and an Inspector of Artillery for the Dominion, having carried out the instructions which, by desire of the Government, I communicated to him in the month of June last, I have now the honour to transmit his separate Report* respecting the defences of Esquimalt, Victoria, and the adjacent harbours and bays of Vancouver Island and a portion of the mainland of British Columbia.

The joint Report of Lieutenant-Colonel Strange and of Colonel Lovell, Royal Engineers, will probably be sent by the latter, as the senior officer, direct to the War Office in London.

Although four years have elapsed since I had the pleasure of carrying out the wishes of the Dominion Government by crossing the North-west Territories, the Rocky Mountains, and British Columbia, to inspect and report on the military aspect of those remote regions, then much less acces- sible than they have since become, yet I have not failed to bear in mind the great importance which struck me attaching to the fortification of our naval station at Esquimalt.

* Inclosure 4.

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