No. 19

I have the honor to acknowledge the receipt of your Despatch No. 4
of the 4th January enclosing a letter from Rear Admiral Hastings,
expressing his belief that it is unnecessary to confer local brevet rank
on the Officer in Command of the Force stationed at San Juan.

The Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs and the Lords
Commissioners of the Admiralty to whom the subject was referred concur
in the opinion expressed by Rear Admiral Hastings.