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(Secret.) Sir,

467

Inclosure 9 in No. 134.

Foreign Office to Admiralty.

Foreign Office, September 15, 1879. I AM directed by the Marquis of Salisbury to request you to inform his Lordship whether the Lords Commissioners of the Admiralty attach any importance-as coaling-stations or otherwise to the Leeward Group of Society Islands, declared independent by the Declaration of the 19th June, 1847, between Great Britain and France. The printed correspondence, containing a Memorandum on this subject by Sir E. Hertslet, which was inclosed in the letter from this Department of the 31st October last, will be found useful in considering the question; and I am at the same time to transmit, for their Lordships' information, a copy of a further Memorandum drawn up by Sir E. Hertslet on the subject.

I am, &c.

(Signed)

Inclosure 10 in No. 134.

Admiralty to Foreign Office.

JULIAN PAUNCEFOTE.

(Secret.) Sir,

Admiralty, September 29, 1879. IN reply to your letter, marked Secret, of the 15th instant,* as to whether any importance-as coaling-station or otherwise-is attached to the Leeward Group of Society Islands, I am commanded by my Lords Commissioners of the Admiralty to acquaint you, for the information of the Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs, that my Lords see no present prospect of a coaling-station at these islands being of service to this country from a naval point of view; but, in the event of a canal being cut through the Isthmus of Panamá, they might prove of much value as a coaling-station.

2. My Lords would therefore not recommend any expense being incurred in the locality in question with that object at present; but my Lords would consider it unadvisable to allow the Leeward Group of Society Islands to be included in the French Protectorate, to be occupied by any other Power.

No. 135.

I am, &c.

(Signed)

ROBERT HALL.

Royal Commission on the Defence of British Possessions and Commerce Abroad to Foreign Office.

13, Delahay Street, July 26, 1880.

Sir,

I AM directed by the Royal Commission on the Defence of British Possessions and Commerce Abroad to request that they may be furnished with copies of any correspondence which may have been printed having reference to the provision of additional coaling-stations for Her Majesty's fleet in the Pacific, including the Confidential Memoranda by Sir E. Hertslet, Nos. 3907 and 3899.

No. 136.

I have, &c. (Signed)

HERBERT JEKYLL.

Foreign Office to Royal Commission on the Defence of British Possessions and Commerce Abroad.

Foreign Office, July 31, 1880.

(Confidential.) Sir,

IN reply to your letter of the 26th instant,† applying for copies of any printed correspondence in the possession of the Foreign Office which had reference to the provision of additional coaling-stations for Her Majesty's fleet in the Pacific Ocean, I am directed by Earl Granville to transmit to you here- with, for the confidential information of the Royal Commission on the Defence of British Possessions and Commerce Abroad, copies of printed correspondence and memoranda as marked in the margin.

* Inclosure 9.

I am, &c. (Signed)

JULIAN PAUNCEFOTE.

† No. 135.

Correspondence respecting the relations between Japan and Corea, and the proposed occupation of Port Hamilton by Great Britain, Confidential, printed November 4, 1875 (2700); French establishments in the Pacific, May 1879 (3907); Memorandum, Sir E. Hertslet, January 20, 1879.

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250

Appendix No. 4.

PACIFIC COALING

STATIONS.

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