RÉFORME DE L'ARMÉE IMPÉRIALE

Rapport de MM. Godley et Hamilton (} (Extraits)

In obedience to the instructions which we have received, we have inquired into and considered the relations of the Colonies of Great Britain to the mother country, as re- &arGs the expenditure on their military defence.

The duties imposed on us were explained in a letter from General PEEL (2), to the Secretary of State for the ÆColonies, dated 14th March, 1859, in consequence of which the committee was appointed.

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Fes principles suggested by General Peel, as the basis of such arrangements, are as follows :—

1. England should assist in the defence of her Colonies against aggression on the part of foreign nations, but in no case, except where such Colonies are mere garrisons kept up for Imperial Purposes, should she assume the whole of such defence; but, on the contrary, she should insist, as a condition of her aid, that the Colony should also 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 garri son; and

2. 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 on 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.

The first point to which it fs our duty to call attention is the fact that the Colonies of Great Britain may be said, speaking generally, to have been free from the obligation of contributing, either by personal service or money payment, towards their own defences — a state of things which we believe to have no parallel or precedent in the case of any other organized community of which the history is known.

We subjoin a return of the military force and the expenditure for military purposes in our Colonies for 1857-58, the last year for which we have complete accounts. It will be seen that, including the cost of the Cape German Legion, the military expenditure amounted to £3,968,599. Of this only £378,253 was contributed by the Colonies, being less than one-tenth part of the whole; and of that contribution about two-thirds were paid by three Colonies, New South Wales, Victoria, and Ceylon. It is remarkable that no Colony except Canada, and, to a very small extent, Victoria, the Cape, and one or two of the West India Colonies, had organized a militia or other local force,

We consider that this immunity, throwing as it does the defence of the Colonies almost entirely on the mother country, is open to two main objections. In the first place, it imposes an enormous burden and inconvenience on the people of England, not only by the addition which it makes to their taxes, but by calling off to remnte stations a large proportion of their troops and ships, and thereby weakening their means of defence at home. But a still more important objection is, the tendency which this system must necessarily have to prevent the development of a proper spirit of self-

(1) Sessional Papers, 1862, No. 17,—deuxième partie. (2) Ministre de la guerre dans le second cabinet Derby.

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Next to the | Ve ntibutions of our Colonies towards their defenses the most conspicuous defect in the present system js its inequality as among the Colo. nies themselves.

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have shown, most liberally and largely, we have lately, at great expense and inconveaience, removed part of the regiment quartered there, on the express ground that Vie. toria refused to Pay for more than four Companies, to Tasmania, which not only does

Again, we have removed the troops from Antigua, on the ground that the Colony would not provide barracks for them, to Barbadoes, where we Provide barracks for them ourselves. Again, Canada is the first British Colony which has set the example of orga-

s0 far as to demand Payment for some great coats and smooth-bore muskets, which happened to be in store on the spot, and which we have issued to them. Yet at the same time, we are distributing, gratis, from the store at Quebec a large quantity of the best Enfield rifles to Nova Scotia, New Brunswick and Newfoundland, for the use volunteers, although ve have never been able to induce * ,0se Colonies to organise militia or to contribute one farthing, in any shape, tows ; their own defence.

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Having pointed out, as above, the evils of the p Proceed to submft Our proposals for altering it. Before doing s0, jt will Le convenient to state the general principles on which we believe such alteration should be founded.

In the second place, we submit that a system of defence, based upon the presence of Imperial Sarrisons in every part of the empire, is as Inefficient as it js burdensome : and that the right System would be one based on local efforts and local resources.

AIl history shows (what is indeed evident à priori) that the maintenance of dominion over scattered an! distant territories depends either on the nature of the countries and their Population, or upon the command of the sea.

War with America. On the other hand the Americans could never subdue and retain in subjection the British provinces, s0 long as the latter are determined not to their dominion. 1? fs quite truc that we could assist the Colonists v..y materially, but

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