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establishment of a service which will stop our British letters travelling over two sides of a triangle via New York, and when the merchant in New York, to whom time is a consideration, will travel to and from and communicate by post with the United Kingdom through Canada. Gentlemen, the object of your requesting me to give you this interview is to provide you with an opportunity for bringing once more before the attention of the public the desirability of supplementing the establishment of the all-read route with an all-red Empire-owned cable, " by and through which will freely interflow between every portion of His Majesty's dominions every national aspiration and every sympathetic impulse of the British people in every portion of the globe." The adoption of this policy has long been advocated by your Board of Trade, and when the day comes (as come it will), when peoples living within range of the all-red cables will be able to exchange thought with every other people similarly situated at a low and uniform rate, making telegraphic intercourse between various parts of the British Empire as easy and almost as cheap as that which exists between Ottawa and Vancouver to-day, then when that day comes, thanks in a large measure to your efforts, nothing will be able to deprive the Ottawa Board of Trade, and Sir Sanford Fleming especially, of the halo of glory which will for all time belong to you. As one of those who believe with Sir Sandford Fleming that the establishment of a Stateowned all-red line will be a service of hardly less importance to the Empire than the establishment of the all-red route, I shall have much pleasure in forwarding to Lord Elgin, the Secretary of State for the Colonies, with a request that he shall communicate its contents to the King and, with the approval of His Majesty, to the other Governments of the Empire, the address to which 1 have listened with so much interest. I have never forgotten the words of Mr. Hofmeyer, the famous South-African, when Sir Sandford Fleming's scheme was explained to him. "If I were still a young man," he is reported to have said, "with the same optimistic feelings as those of 1887, I would make the adoption of such a scheme as Sir Sandford Fleming's the main object of my life, and carry it, too." That the Ottawa Board of Trade, under the inspiring leadership of Sir Sandford Fleming, may continue to make the adoption of the all-red cable the main object of its existence is not only my hope but my expectation, and if you do make it the main object of your existence, I feel with Mr. Hofmeyer that you will carry it. The fact that the Eighty Club, of which I had the honour to be the founder, but from which a disagreement in Imperial politics caused me subsequently to sever my connection, has declared itself to be in favour of this most important bit of constructive Imperialism confirms my belief that if you persevere you will succeed.

No. 103. The High Commissioner to the Right Hon. the Prime Minister. Westminster Chambers, 13 Victoria Street, London, S.W., (Memorandum.) Bth November, 1907. In reply to the Hon. Minister's letter of the 10th September last [not printed], I beg to enclose herein four copies each of the print " Views of Many Eminent Canadians on the Establishment of an Imperial Intelligence Service on a Comprehensive Scale," by Sir Sandford Fleming, and of a letter from the Pacific Cable Board to the Colonial Office of the 21st March, 1906. The Right Hon. the Prime Minister. W. P. Reeves. [Tel. 07/327.]

Enclosure 1 in No. 103. Views of Many Eminent Canadians on the Establishment of an Imperial Intelligence Service on a Comprehensive Scale. —Letter addressed to the Right Honourable the Earl of Elgin, Secretary of State for the Colonies, by Sir Sandford Fleming, 1906. Sir,— Ottawa, 26th January, 1906. I have the honour to submit, for the information of your Government, a communication addressed to the Right Hon. the Earl of Elgin, Secretary of State for the Colonies. This communication refers to the views of many well-known Canadians on the prime necessity of an Imperial Intelligence Department as a means of advancing the consolidation of the Empire. I am convinced that the establishment of the service suggested w-ould immediately lead to a more satisfactory financial outlook for the Pacific cable, and immensely promote the usefulness of that State undertaking. I have, Ac, Sandford Fleming. The Right Hon. Sir Wilfrid Laurier, Prime Minister, Canada.

Sub-enclosure to Enclosure 1 in No. 103. My Lord, — Ottawa, 26th January, 1906. I have the honour to submit the following papers, which I venture to think have a; bearing on a subject of much interest to the people of the Mother-country and all the colonies. Having, through force of circumstances, come into possession of the views of many of the foremost men in Canada on a proposal respecting the organization of the Empire, duty impels me 7—F. 8.