Hamilton to Merivale (Permanent Under-Secretary)

With reference to Mr Elliot's Letter of the 25th
Ult., enclosing copies of a Correspondence between the Colonial
Office and the War Department, upon the subject of the mode of
replacing the stores lost in the "Briseis," which were intended
for the use of the Royal Engineer Force in British Columbia, I
am directed by the Lords Commissoners of Her Majesty's Treasury
to request that you will state to Sir E. Bulwer Lytton that My
Lords regret the expense and loss which has been incurred with
respect to the stores for British Columbia, but They do not
consider that there are sufficient grounds for requiring the War
Department to defray this Expense, neither could the amount be
recovered from the Funds of the Colony.

It appears to My Lords that the only course will be to
provide for the cost of the stores lost, in the vote to be
submitted to Parliament, for British Columbia, adding to the
Estimate an explanation of the cause of this charge upon Imperial Funds.