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No. 31. UGANDA.
THE ACTING COMMISSIONER to THE SECRETARY OF STATE.
(Received 5.30 p.m., May 16, 1907.)
TELEGRAM.
[Answered by No. 36.]
No. 14. Referring to your despatch, No. 83,* I have visited Koch's and Busiro Camps with Principal Medical Officer. I am convinced that establishment of Chagwe and soga Camps is absolutely necessary. Both, together with Senior Medical Officer, are also convinced that the present time is most auspicious with natives. Chiefs of Uganda and Usoga press for camp construction and for atoxyl treatment. I urge sanction to proceed. Principal Medical Officer presses for instant engagement of two medical officers sanctioned for sleeping sickness, and that India Office be asked to supply eight second-class hospital assistants, also sanctioned, in addition to those already applied for East Africa Protectorate. This is (?) urgent. Further supplies required of atoxyl have been ordered by telegram-
WILSON.
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No. 32.
BRITISH CENTRAL AFRICA PROTECTORATE. COLONIAL OFFICE to THE LIVERPOOL SCHOOL OF TROPICAL MEDICINE.
[Acknowledged May 22, 1907.]
Downing Street, May 17, 1907.
SIR,
I AM directed by the Earl of Elgin to acknowledge the receipt of your letter of the 14th instant,† giving an outline of the proposed itinerary of the Sleeping Sickness Expedition to Rhodesia and the British Central Africa Protectorate.
2. Lord Elgin presumes that you are consulting the British South Africa Company as to the method of paying the subsistence allowance granted to the members of the expedition during the time which is spent in North-Western and North-Eastern Rhodesia. As several months must elapse before the expedition reaches the British Central Africa Protectorate, the Secretary of State thinks that there will be time to ascertain from the Officer Administering the Government whether he can arrange for the allowances granted by the Protectorate Government to be paid locally to Dr. Kinghorn and Mr. Montgomery, or, if not, what other plan he would suggest: his Lordship is consulting Major Pearce accordingly.
I am, &c.,
H. BERTRAM COX.
99
2. The Administrator's covering letter to these Regulations is attached for your Lordship's perusal. From this it will be observed that the Regulations have been drafted with a view of preventing natives of North-Eastern Rhodesia pene- trating into what there is every reason to believe is a zone infected with the sleeping sickness.
3. I forwarded the draft Regulations to the Protectorate Legal Adviser who, in reply, has raised certain points with regard to the Regulations referred to, which leaves me no alternative but to forward them for your Lordship's final decision as to whether they may be enforced.
4. While, no doubt, the legal contentions of the Attorney-General are correct and legitimate, I am inclined to think that, in an undeveloped country, with an aboriginal population of notoriously low intellectual and reasoning powers, the too strict adherence to the letter of the law is not always desirable, or in the interest of humanity. Moreover, the restrictions which the Administrator proposes to enforce contain, in my opinion, nothing more drastic or likely to prove ultra vires than those already legalised by the existing Pass Laws, which are in vogue in nearly every African State.
5. The suggestion of the Attorney-General that the power of the Magistrate to prohibit the immigration of a native into any part of the Congo Free State should be limited does not commend itself to me, in view of the danger which might result from a continued and promiscuous intercourse between North-Eastern Rhodesia and a zone infected with the sleeping sickness. The first suggestion made, that before granting a permit the proper officer should satisfy himself that the native in question fully understands the danger he is running in going into the Congo Free State, The is obviously made without an intimate knowledge of the African native. mental capacity of the negro does not yet permit him to understand the cause of disease, and the idea of contagion or infection is entirely beyond his comprehension. To instance one case; it is a well-known fact that in small-pox outbreaks the African native takes no precaution to segregate those stricken, who are permitted to associate with the community in every-day intercourse.
6. The other limitations suggested by the Attorney-General would, I think, tend to make a native who desired to go to the Congo Free State hesitate to present himself before a Magistrate for the purpose of obtaining a permit, and would thus defeat the object of the Regulations.
7. My own opinion is that the proposed Regulations are reasonable, and at the present juncture, desirable, and it appears to me that the sooner these restric- tions are enforced the better.
I therefore request, should Your Lordship approve of the Regulations, that formal sanction may be sent me by telegraph.
I have, &c.,
F. PEARCE,
Acting Commissioner.
PUBLIC RECORD OFFICE
Reference :-
C.O.885
18 PUBLIC RECORD OFFICE, LONDON
ALLY WITHOUT PERMISSION OF THE BE REPRODUCED PHOTOGRAPHIC- COPYRIGHT PHOTOGRAPH-NOT TO
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No. 33.
NORTH-EASTERN RHODESIA.
THE ACTING COMMISSIONER OF THE BRITISH CENTRAL AFRICA PRO- TECTORATE to THE SECRETARY OF STATE.
(No. 113.)
MY LORD,
(Received June 14, 1907.)
[Copy to Foreign Office, June 21, 1907. L.F.] [Answered by No. 34.]
Government Offices, Zomba, British Central Africa, May 3, 1907.
I HAVE the honour to herewith transmit a draft copy of "Movements of Natives Restricting Regulations, 1907," which has been submitted to me by the Administrator of North-Eastern Rhodesia.
• No. 22.
† No. 30.
Enclosure 1 in No. 33.
THE BRITISH SOUTH AFRICA COMPANY.
Administration of North-Eastern Rhodesia.
Movements of Natives Restricting Regulations, 1907.
Whereas under the provisions of the North-Eastern Rhodesia Order in Council 1900, the Administrator, with the approval of the Commissioner, has power to make Regulations for peace, order and good government, and whereas the disease known as trypanosomiasis or "sleeping sickness" has been shown to be endemic in certain parts of the Congo Free State:
It is hereby notified that the Administrator has, in pursuance of the above powers, made the following Regulations:-
1. These Regulations may be cited as "Movements of Natives Restricting Regulations, 1907."
2. All movements of natives from North-Eastern Rhodesia to any part of the Congo Free State are prohibited except under a Permit signed by a Magistrate, Native Commissioner or Justice of the Peace.
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