Hammond to Merivale (Permanent Under-Secretary)
March 15, 1856
Sir,
With reference to the question now before the Secretary of State for the Colonial Department of extending to the Colony of Vancouver's Island the provisions of the Treaty between this Country and the United States of America of the 5th of June 1854 I am directed by the Earl of Clarendon to transmit to you, to be laid before Mr Secretary Labouchere, a Copy of a Letter from the Hudson's BayManuscript imageBay Company communicating to His Lordship a Correspondence which has taken place with your Department upon this subject, with further observations relative thereto.
I am, Sir,
Your most obedient humble Servant
E. Hammond

Minutes by CO staff
Manuscript image
Mr Merivale
Put with 2015—which was referred on the 15th instt to the H.B.Co.
ABd 17/3
I do not see why—this letter from the HBC to the Foreign office
has crossed ours of 13 March referring on the question to the H.B.C. so thatManuscript image it appears there has been direct communication between Ld Clarendon & the Company about this treaty of which we were unaware. The circumstance illustrates the inconvenience of the practice, on which I had already remarked.
HM Mh 18
JB 19 M
HL 19
Documents enclosed with the main document (not transcribed)
Manuscript image
1. John Shepherd, Hudson's Bay Company, to Hammond, 13 March 1856, supporting the extention of the Reciprocity Treaty to Vancouver Island but "restricting the liberty of fishing solely to sea fishery, and reserving the right of salmon, and other fisheries in rivers and the mouths of rivers. . . ."