Mundy to Merivale (Permanent Under-Secretary)

I have received and laid before the Duke of Newcastle your
letter of the 17th instant, with its accompanying extract of a
Despatch from the Governor of Van Couver's Island, from which it
appears that, without waiting for an answer to the Despatch
under date 
the 16th May, which he has already addressed to the Secretary of State on the subject of the Defences of the Colony,
he has taken upon himself to charter a Vessel belonging to the
Hudson's Bay Company, to serve as a Guard Ship, at a cost of £600 a
month, which, he presumes, will be defrayed by Her Majesty's Government.

In reply thereto, I am directed to request that you will
intimate to Secretary Sir George Grey, that, unless
he should
have been supplied by Governor Douglas or from any other quarter
with information of a much more reliable nature than any which
has hitherto reached the Duke of Newcastle, as to the danger to
which the Colony is exposed from Privateers or otherwise, His
Grace is of opinion, adverting to the correspondence which has
already passed on the subject, that the proceeding thus adopted
by Governor Douglas should be disapproved, and that he should be
informed 
that Her Majesty's Government cannot sanction, or hold
itself in any way responsible for the outlay incurred on this
account as a charge against the Imperial Treasury.

The correspondence referred to is to the following effect.
*

In a Despatch, dated 16th May last, Governor Douglas requested
to be furnished, from Her Majesty's Stores, with arms,
accoutrements, ammunition and 12 Months provisions, for the
service of a Military Force of 500 men, to be raised in the
Colony; also with several pieces of light and 
heavy Ordnance for
defensive Batteries, intimating, at the same time a desire to be
supplied with immediate instructions in respect to the payment
of any expenses necessarily incurred in providing for the
defences of the Colony, and to be informed to what amount, and
on whom he might draw for the same.

In answer to this Despatch (which was received on the 25th
July) he was informed, on the 5th August, that Her Majesty's
Government 
deemed it to be at once both unnecessary and
unadvisable to accede to the above requisition; that the Lords
of the Admiralty had already given such directions to the
Admiral on the Station as would ensure the Island being
frequently visited by one or more of the Ships of War under his
command; and that Her Majesty's Government considered there was
nothing in the circumstances of the War with Russia to forbid
the hope and 
expectation that the countenance and support which
would be thus afforded, would amply suffice for the protection
of the Island.