With reference to your letter of the 
21 February
                  last forwarding copies of correspondence in which the
               Governor of 
Vancouvers Island [marginal note: 
British Columbia]
               requests that a balance of
               £3937.10.6 stated to be due to 
British Columbia for the
               Pay and Subsistence of the Detachment of Royal Engineers
               lately serving in the Colony, may be paid to the Crown
               Agents to the credit of the Colony,
               
               I am directed by the Secretary of State for War to
               acquaint you that the full amount of the credit taken
               by this Department in the account Current, has been paid
               over to the
Treasury
 Treasury Account for Civil Services, or to the
               Treasury Chest Account upon claims preferred by the Audit
               Office, and that, under these circumstances, any claim
               which the Colony may have against the Home Government on
               account of advances made for the above Service should be
               preferred against the 
Lords Commissoners of Her Majesty's Treasury.