Historic Red River Settlement letters released

This year is the bicentenary of the Red River Selkirk Settlement, and in connection with that two historical letters from the National Records of Scotland have been released. 
They were made public by Scotland’s Cabinet Secretary for Culture and External Affairs Fiona Hyslop on the 200^th anniversary of the Red River Selkirk Settlement in Manitoba.

The settlement -- which become the city of Winnipeg -- was founded during the Highland Clearances by Thomas Douglas, the fifth Earl of Selkirk.

From the text of the September 4 announcement:

“The papers have been discovered by Scottish archivists in the Melville and Dalhousie collections, which were acquired on behalf of the public by the National Records of Scotland.

“One is a draft letter from Lord Melville, First Lord of the Admiralty. Dated June 22, 1812 - just a few days after the United States Congress declared war on Britain - it turns down a request to protect settlers from the “press gang” and for a naval escort for their ship. Despite Lord Melville's refusal to help the settlers, they made it safely across the Atlantic.

GD51/2/1045

Draft letter from Robert, 2^nd Viscount Melville at the Admiralty to Sir James Montgomery, MP for Peeblesshire, 22 June 1812.

Admiralty

22 June 1812

Dear Sir James,

We cannot grant the protections which Lord Selkirk desires for the passengers on board the Robert Taylor;  if they are Landsmen, & not liable to the Impress; they require no protections. If any of them are liable, it will be the duty of the Naval Officers to detain them for the King's Service; but you may be assured that no Officer will impress a Landsman if he is satisfied that he is really not a seafaring man.

It would totally derange the service if the vessels employed in raising men were to be detached on convoy duty off the Coast, or on any other occupation than the one to which they are specially appointed. I apprehend that in fact no such convoy will be requisite, & at any rate V[ice]. Admiral Thornborough will grant it if he shall think it necessary.

Believe me ever, Dear Sir James

Yours very faithfully

[Robert, 2^nd Viscount Melville, First Lord of the Admiralty]

“The other document is an account of the notorious Battle of Seven Oaks in 1816 by Angus Shaw of the North West Company (NWC) - a rival fur trading company to the Hudson's Bay Company in which Lord Selkirk was a majority shareholder. Lord Selkirk was criticised for his conduct following the violent confrontation and was not able fully to vindicate himself within his own lifetime.

GD45/3/17

Copy of an account by Angus Shaw, one of the Proprietors in North West Company, to James Fraser Esq at Halifax of the events at Red River, 14 October 1816.

Mem[oria]l

North West Company[']s Affairs - Upper Canada

Quebec 14^th Oct 1816

The Colony which L^d. Selkirk had established on the Red River having left that place in 1815, another Emigration consisting of 160 souls having arrived from Scotland that fall, proceeded to the same Red River, & there spent this last winter; but in consequence of quarrels between them and the Indians of that district, aided by the half breeds; (a numerous and formidable set of independent men inhabiting that country,) the person in charge of the colony (a M^r Semple) found it necessary to build a strong fort mounting cannon in the vicinity of the huts of the Colony, in order to protect them from the Indians & half breeds who constantly hovered round the banks of the river.

In June last, a party of Indians, half breeds and four of the North West Company's servants having passed the said Fort, M^r Semple observing them, ordered his men to arm & attack them; M^r Semple sallyed out with about 26 Officers & men with one piece of Cannon.

On their approaching the Indians &^ca a Parl^y took place, but it is incontestably proven that M^r Semple ordered his men to fire in the first instance, by which fire 1 Indian was killed & a half breed mortally wounded. This fire was unfortunately so successfully returned that in a few minutes M^r Semple 4 Officers and 19 men were left dead on the spot.

The Indians then went to the Colonists, told them to leave the Country immediately, that they would not molest them, but never again to return, as they were resolved never to permit any whites to settle on their land which they never did sell to the King, nor to L^d. Selkirk.

Accounts of this Catastrophe having reached L^d. Selkirk on his way to the red river, accompanied by about 150 Soldiers who had lately been disbanded from the Reg^t. De Meuron, all well armed, & having 10 or 12 pieces of Cannon; it was thought by M^r. M^cGillivray (who was then in latter end of July at our Depot called Fort William at the West end of Lake Superior) that his Lordship intended to build and fortify a Port likewise on the borders of Lake Superior; but instead of this, his L ^dship on arrival at Fort William sent a person with a Warrant from himself as a Magistrate for the Indian Territory, who apprehended M^r. M^cGillivray in the Fort, with all such Partners then in the Fort as might be useful in carrying on the business.

M^r. M^cG. & these Gentlemen having quietly submitted to legal proceedings, tho' put in force for selfish purposes, Lord Selkirk with his foreign Soldiers took possession of the Depot of Fort William, & in a couple of days sent down M^r. M^cG. & the other Gentlemen as Prisoners, likewise all the other partners & Clerks there, as Witnesses, and by means of those forces his L^d.ship has retained possession of the Depot, containing furs, which he w^d. not permit to be removed, to the amount of £50,000 Ster^g. likewise Goods & Provisions to the amount of £60,000 more, turning all those of our Servants & Clerks out of doors who would not enter his service, in short acting as if the whole place & property were his own, tho' it is situated 800 miles from the nearest limits of the Hudson's Bay territory.

M^r. M^cG. & those who came down with him, have been bailed over to March next, when they are to be tried "for aiding & abetting the Indians & half breeds" who in their own defence killed several people, more than a thousand miles from where those Gen^t. were at the time this unfortunate rencontre took place.

A petition has been presented to the Gov^r. General praying redress &^ca either thro' him or thro' the Gov^r. in Upper Canada. Something is ordered by Sir John in the premises, what it is I know not, but on the faith of it, a party of our people have lately proceeded to the falls of S^t. Marys, there to wait orders from York the capital of Upper Canada.

I have now given you a sketch of the occurrence of last Summer. It is impossible for me to guess how this serious matter will terminate. We have every reason to expect legal redress, which is all we want; had we not acted on this principle His Lordship & his foreign Robbers would have been ill off ere now.

By Angus Shaw, one of the Proprietors in N. West C^o. to James Fraser Esq^r. at Halifax.

“Mounted copies of the letters will now be presented to His Honour the Lieutenant Governor of Manitoba in Canada by the Rt. Hon. James Alexander Douglas-Hamilton, Baron Selkirk of Douglas, PC, QC, who is currently visiting Manitoba to participate in the 200^th anniversary commemorative activities.”

“Photographs of the letters are available to download from the Scottish Government's Flickr channel: http://www.flickr.com/photos/scottishgovernment/.” National Records of Scotand: http://www.nrscotland.gov.uk/

G4S: a sorry security tale

So, what's with G4S?
The big international company has been publicly disgraced for it's inability to come through on a contract to provide security guards for the Olympics in London. The British government is calling out the army to make up a possible shortfall of several thousand guards.
Questioned by a parliamentary committee, G4S chief executive, Nick Buckles admitted that the Olympic security contract had turned into "a humiliating shambles" left his company's reputation in tatters.
It seems a strange turn of events for a company that bills itself as the "world's leading security solutions group." G4S has operations in 125 countries, and with more than 650,000 employees is the world's third largest private employer (after Walmart and Foxconn, a Chinese computer hardware manufacturer).
Especially considering the company had two years to prepare for the Olympics.
In a blog post describing G4S's inability to deliver as "incompetence on an astonishing scale," Dr. Matthew Ashton, politics lecturer at Nottingham Trent University, pointed to a huge oversight and management failure on the part of both the company and the government.
Asking why the army wasn't involved from the beginning, he suggests it is because the often repeated received wisdom that the private sector must be able to do anything better than the state can.
And so, he says, "I'm willing to bet that even after making a complete hash of the Olympic games job, G4S will continue to win government contracts in the future, with some spurious reason being offered up as to why this time it'll be different."
For Edmontonians, the G4S name will also come to mind in connection with the July 15 shooting of four of its employees during an armoured car delivery robbery on the University of Alberta campus. A fifth employee, 21-year-old Travis Baumgartner, was subsequently arrested and charged with the killings and the robbery.
This isn't the first time that kind of thing has happened to G4S. In December 2007, the equivalent of 20 million euros disappeared from the safe in the Prague office of its Czech subsidiary. Fortunately in this case there was no violence; no-one was killed or injured.
G4S employee Frantisek Prochazka is alleged to have taken the money, in 500, 1000 and 2000 Czech Koruna notes, from the safe and loaded it into four metal cases, which he took out to a vehicle waiting on the company's grounds. A male accomplice drove the car away and Prochazka went back in and finished his shift.
Unlike Baumgartner, stopped at the U.S. border shortly after the robbery with $330,000 in cash, Prochazka has not been located. he was one of those named in Interpol's Infra-Red 2012 campaign seeking public help in tracking down wanted fugitives.
The 37-year-old speaks English and is believed to alter his appearance by sometimes wearing a beard or mustache, shaving his head and  switching between glasses and contacts. He is considered dangerous and may be armed.
Interpol believes there is a good possibility that Prochazka is in Canada, among other possibilities including the U.K., Dominican Republic, Honduras, Mexico and the U.S. More information is available here: http://www.interpol.int/Media/Files/Crime-areas/Fugitives/Operation-Infra-Red/Wanted-persons-Infra-Red-20122/PROCHAZKA-Frantisek