CAB9-1_PT1 — Page 106

SECRET.

45R

Printed for the use of the Colonial Office,

QUEENSLAND.

Further Reply of Local Committee.

C.O, No. 25310.

Remarks by the Colonial Defence Committee.

THE Committee call attention to the following points

1. Signalling Regulations.-The Board of Trade have pointed out the undesirability of giving a belligerent character to lighthouses. This would not imply that informa- tion is not to be obtained from lighthouse-keepers, but that they should not be publicly invested with a belligerent character.

2. Entry of Ports.-The Committee point out that where as at Singapore ships can lie under the guns of the defence, there is no objection to the system of permit. In the case of Brisbane, the local conditions are such that this regulation of traffic is as necessary in peace as in war. In concurring with these regulations, therefore, the Committee have not departed from the principles laid down, that the entry of British vessels into port by day and night should be facilitated as far as possible.

3. Mines at Cooktown and Cairns.-On account of the small depth of water in these channels, it will be necessary to insure that the proposed ground mines should offer no obstruction whatever to traffic; otherwise it would be best to abandon them.

G. S. CLARKE, Secretary,

(Signed)

!

March 4, 1891.

Colonial Defence Committee.

PRINTED AT THE FOREIGN OFFICE BY J. W. HARRISON.—1/3/1901.

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