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A selection from the writings and speeches of John Robert Godley

Report of the Committee on the Expense of Military Defences in the Colonies

Report of the Committee on the Expense of Military Defences in the Colonies.

From Sir Benjamin Hawes to Mr. Merivale.

War Office, March 14, 1859.

Sir,—

I am directed by Secretary Major-General Peel to request that you will represent to Secretary Sir E. B. Lytton that so great is the difficulty and embarrassment occasioned to this Department by the absence of any fixed and recognised principle for the guidance of the Secretary of State in determining the numerous questions of military expenditure which are continually arising in most of the Colonies, that Major-General Peel feels it to be highly desirable that steps should be at once taken for coming to an understanding with the several Colonies concerned on the subject.

So long as the Secretary of State for War was also Secretary of State for the Colonies, the inconvenience referred to was of course less seriously left, inasmuch as the Minister who filled the joint offices possessed means of information as to the actual requirements of the Colonies, and their ability or not to defray the cost involved, which enabled him readily to decide for himself how far it would be proper to grant or to refuse page 256demands submitted to him from time to time for troops, military stores, &c. The duty and responsibility of dealing with such demands, and of explaining and defending to Parliament the expenditure incurred or proposed in respect of them, now devolve on a Minister who has no official knowledge of the political and social circumstances of the Colonies, and no means of communicating with Colonial Governments. It appears to General Peel that the adoption of arrangements which should define the respective liabilities of this Department and the various Colonial Governments, in respect to military expenditure, would relieve the Secretary of State for War from the difficulty in question, and would at the same time be more conducive to the interest and convenience of the Colonies themselves.

That such arrangements are practicable, and, where they do exist, are found to work satisfactorily, is proved by the example of Malta, Mauritius, the Ionian Islands, and Ceylon, which pay a contribution into the Exchequer in aid of military funds; and again by the example of New South Wales, Victoria, and South Australia, which pay for military buildings and defences, and which are to defray the pay and allowances of any troops whom they may require beyond a specified number maintained from the Imperial Exchequer. Major-General Peel would now propose to extend the principle of those arrangements to the rest of the Colonies, with such modifications as the variety of their circumstances may render necessary.

The general principle to be borne in view in negotiating with Colonial Governments on this subject would be, as General Peel conceives:—1st, that England should assist in the defence of her Colonies against aggression on the part of foreign civilised nations, and (in a less proportion) of formidable native tribes; but in no case, except where such Colonies are mere garrisons kept up for Imperial purposes, should she assume the whole of such defence. On the contrary, she should insist, as a condition of her aid, that the Colony should page 257also contribute its share by maintaining, at its own expense, a local force, or, if circumstances appear to make that impossible, by paying part of the expense of the Imperial garrison; and, 2nd, that military expenditure, for purposes of internal police, should be defrayed from local funds, there being no grounds for drawing any distinction between a Colony and an independent nation in this respect; and the preservation of internal peace and order being properly thrown upon local authorities, both because it depends upon their own legislation and management, and because the local population is mainly, if not exclusively, interested in it.

These being the general principles on which General Peel conceives that the arrangement to be entered into with the respective Colonial Legislatures should be based, he would, in the event of their being concurred in and adopted by the Secretary of State for the Colonies and the Lords Commissioners of the Treasury (to whom a corresponding communication has been made), suggest that the business of preparing for the consideration of Her Majesty's Government a scheme for the application of them to each Colony, should be confided to a committee, consisting of three members, one to be nominated by the Secretary of State for the Colonies, one by the Lords of the Treasury, and one by the Secretary of State for War.

I have, &c.,

(Signed) B. Hawes.

H. Merivale, Esq., &c., &.,
Colonial Office.