No. 23
Downing Street
9 June 1860
Sir,
The Lords Commissioners of the Admiralty have transmitted to me copies of a correspondence which passed between Rear Admiral Baynes and yourself in March last, relative to the withdrawal of the Royal Marines in Vancouver Island for service on San Juan.
I have expressed to their LordshipsManuscript imageLordships my concurrence in the Admiral's view of this matter. The Marines were not sent to Vancouver Island as substitutes for a Police, but for the protection of the general interests of the Empire in that part of the World; and in the absence of any apprehension of disturbances in the Colony, the force could not be more properly or usefully employed than in the service for which it was withdrawn from Fort Victoria by Admiral Baynes.
IManuscript imageI have etc.
Newcastle