No. 17.
The
Secretary of the
Company to Lord
John Russell.
My Lord,—
The directors of this Company have desired me to transmit to your Lordship the accompanying extracts from the Journal de Havre, French newspaper, from which it appears that a French expedition has been despatched for the purpose of founding a colony at Banks' Peninsula, in the Southern Island of New Zealand, and that the French Government entertains the design of forming a penal settlement in that locality.
The directors regard these reported proceedings of foreigners with the most serious apprehensions, more especially the prospect of the introduction of foreign convicts into a country which is now the seat of a considerable British colony, and of which, as the directors have always believed, the sovereignty is vested in the Crown of Great Britain.
The directors therefore deem it their duty to the large body of colonists who have lately emigrated under their sanction to lay this matter before your Lordship, in the confident hope that it will not escape the attention of Her Majesty's Government.
I have, &c.
John Ward, Secretary.
The Right Hon. Lord J. Russell,
Secretary of State for the Colonies, &c.