Colonial Despatches

The Committee of the Hudson's Bay Company have reason to think that the arrangement respecting the lands of the Company in British Columbia, laid down in the Memorandum signed on the 11th of Octr 1861, by Mr Walcott and Mr Dallas and sanctioned by the letters of His Grace the Duke Newcastle and Mr Berens of November 2nd and November 7th (respectively) in the same year, have not yet been carried into effect with the promptitude on the part of the Colonial Government which His Grace intended.

I have therefore to request that instructions may be given to the Officer administering the Government of British Columbia to cause without delay grants to be made of such lands as the Company is entitled to retain under the above Agreement.

The Clause of the Memorandum providing for Arbitration affords a ready mode of settling any disputes as to fact which may arise and the provision for compensation where the lands in the immediate vicinity of the Forts or Posts may have been granted previous to the Agreement, would seem sufficient to secure to the Company their full rights.

The Committee feelconfident confident that His Grace will be as anxious now, as he was in 1861, for the fair and equitable settlement of their outstanding claims.