Lugard to Merivale (Permanent Under-Secretary)

I am directed by the Secretary of State for War to transmit
to you, for the information of Sir Edward Bulwer Lytton, the
enclosed copy of a letter from the Admiralty, in reference to
the detention in British Columbia of the Party of Royal Marines
who had been despatched from China to that Colony.

Major General Peel is not aware of the circumstances under
which this Detachment was sent to British Columbia, but he presumes
that instructions were given before it had been decided to station a
Military Force in that Colony. He therefore proposes to inform the
Lords Commissioners of the Admiralty that arrangements have some
time since been made of the nature which they suggest for the
performance of the Military duties in British Columbia by the
regular Troops, and that the Secretary of State for War is aware of
no reason for the detention of the Royal Marines.