No. 33
23 June 1860
I have to acknowledge the receipt of your Despatch No 19 of the 12th of April 1860, forwarding Copy of a letter which you had received from the office ofManuscript imageof the Lords Commissioners of the Admiralty, upon the subject of my not furnishing Rear Admiral Baynes with a Copy of Your Grace's Despatch relative to the joint Military occupation of the Island of San Juan.
2. Your Grace regrets I should have felt any doubt about communicating to the Admiral your instructions in a matter of so much importance, and Your GraceManuscript imageGrace instructs me to communicate with him unreservedly upon all matters requiring the co-operation of the Force under his orders.
3. I can assure Your Grace that it has been my constant desire to establish the most frank and unreserved communication between Admiral Baynes and myself, and I have always endeavoured to furnish him with every informationManuscript imageinformation he could desire to assist him in the discharge of his duties and to relieve him from apprehended responsibility; for instance, when General Scott visited this part of the world I instantly communicated with Admiral Baynes, and kept him supplied, as it occurred, with copies of all the correspondence that took place.
4. I observe that the correspondence between theManuscript imagethe Admiral and myself was furnished to Your Grace by the Admiralty. Your Grace would doubtless notice the manner in which the request was preferred to me, and gather from my reply the principal reason which induced me to decline compliance with it. Your Grace would also notice that in my first letter I make no requisition for Troops to be landed upon San Juan, but merely requested the Admiral to concert measuresManuscript imagemeasures with me to that end; and when I saw him I unhesitatingly placed Your Grace's Despatch in his hands; and had he asked me for a Copy either for reference, or to preserve as an official Record I should not have hesitated to supply him. Afterwards, when matters were more matured, I, in making requisition upon Admiral Baynes to land the Troops upon the Island, furnished him with a Copy of the instructions I had received fromManuscript imagefrom Your Grace; and in the whole affair, I really do not think the Admiral has any reasonable ground for complaint.
5. I would further mention incidentally that although Admiral Baynes received instructions respecting San Juan from Lord John Russell, as I gather from his letter to me of the 23rd of January, yet neither directly, nor indirectly, had I any knowledge of that fact untilManuscript imageuntil I received that letter; and up to this moment I am not aware of the nature of those instructions.
I have etc.
Minutes by CO staff
Manuscript image
Sir F. Rogers
Might not this correspondence now terminate. As much has already been said to the Admiralty as the case wd seem to demand?
ABd 6 Augt
I think so. Put by.
FR 6/8
CF 7
Douglas, Sir James to Pelham-Clinton, 5th Duke of Newcastle Henry Pelham Fiennes 23 June 1860, CO 305:14, no. 7740, 324. The Colonial Despatches of Vancouver Island and British Columbia 1846-1871, Edition 2.0, ed. James Hendrickson and the Colonial Despatches project. Victoria, B.C.: University of Victoria. https://bcgenesis.uvic.ca/V60033.html.

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