Menet answers. 1. That the men working on the church ground acted under his direction. 2. He acted under a purchase of said property by the Bishop of Detroit Bishop Frederick Rese more than 15 years ago, who, when he appointed Menet as pastor of the Catholic Congregation of Sault Ste. Marie, entrusted to his care the property of the congregation. What he has done is no more than what every one of his predecessors would have done. He is aware that said lot is in the plan recently made by order of the Department of War and is thereon marked as belonging to the Catholic Church. Wilkin's immediate predecessor gave him to understand that he had made a plan of a fort to be erected there at some future period and that he had taken in the lot of ground on which the Catholic church stands. Twice Menet sent to him to know if he had received any order requiring him to discontinue their work, to which at each time he answered that he had received none. He advised Menet to build the vestry house in rear of the church rather than in front of it. He asks Wilkins to communicate to him any official order on the subject and he will receive and transmit it to Bishop Lefevere. A.L.S. copy