Hammond to Merivale (Permanent Under-Secretary)

I have laid before Lord John Russell your Letter of the 22nd instant
respecting the Land and Buildings purchased for the use of the Oregon
Boundary Commission, and I am to state to you, in reply, for the
information of His Grace the Duke of Newcastle, that the Land and
Buildings in question are actually the property of the Foreign
Office, and that Lord John Russell will be willing to transfer them
to the Admiralty as soon as the labours of the Commission are
concluded, but that His Lordship cannot, at present, fix a time for
this transfer.