PUBLIC
RECORD OFFICE
Reference :-
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HC.O.885
19 PUBLIC RECORD OFFICE, LONDON
ALLY WITHOUT PERMISSION OF THE BE REPRODUCED PHOTOGRAPHIC-
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39855
(No. 76.)
MY LORD,
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No. 83. QUEENSLAND.
THE SECRETARY OF STATE to THE GOVERNOR.
Downing Street. 16 December, 1908. WITH reference to Sir Arthur Morgan's despatch. No. 36, of the 29th of June. I have the honour to inform you that the Advisory Committee for the Tropical Diseases Research Fund have had under their consideration an applica- tion from the Bishop of North Queensland for a grant from the Fund towards the expense of founding an Australian Institute of Tropical Medicine.
+) I enclose a print of the lettert in which the Bishop made application for a grant.
3. The Advisory Committee have recommended, and I have had much pleasure in approving a donation of £400 from the Research Fund towards the expenses of the School.
4. I have given instructions for the payment of this sum to the Agent-General for Queensland, by whom it will, no doubt, be transmitted to your Government.
5. I may add that it gives me much pleasure that a school of Tropical Research in Australia should be thus established, and I have every wish for the prosperity of the Institute. I trust that it may be found possible from time to time to arrange that reports of the work done may be transmitted to this Office, in order that they may be included in the Annual Reports of the Tropical Diseases Research Fund,
I have, &c..
47104
No. 84.
PROFESSOR R. ROSS to COLONIAL OFFICE.
(Received 24 December, 1908.)
CREWE.
Johnston Tropical Laboratory, University of Liverpool,
23rd December, 1908.
SIR,
I BEG to acknowledge with thanks your letter, No. 26597, of the 11th Decem- her, 1905, containing the remarks of the Advisory Committee for the Tropical Diseases Research Fund on my letter to Colonel Seely of the 22nd July last; and I am much obliged to the Right Honourable the Secretary of State for communicat- ing these remarks to me.
2. With regard to paragraph 3 of your letter, I am glad to acknowledge that I have been insufficiently informed regarding the existence of Government schools and public hospitals in Northern Nigeria. I have certainly not been there, and, therefore, cannot pretend to local knowledge of that Protectorate. But the exist- ence of Government schools and dispensaries is not really vital to the point which I raised in connection with that territory, namely, that the information regarding the prevention of malaria in it furnished to the Secretary of State and published by the Advisory Committee in its report for last year was quite insufficient. The reports from the various Colonies were asked for expressly to give information on such points to all those who did not possess local experience of what is being done- in which I presume that I must include the Secretary of State himself, and, indeed, the vast majority of those who read these reports. I complained in my letter to Colonel Seely that the whole of this important matter had been dismissed in a single sentence, namely," That all practical means for the eradication of malaria are taken as part of the routine sanitary work," and I thought this to be so obviously inadequate as to suggest that little real work was being done in that country. I still remain of opinion that the authorities of Northern Nigeria could, without much trouble, have easily reported at greater length if they really had anything to report. For instance, with such a considerable body as forty medical officers in charge of Government
‡ No. 69.
• No. 43.
† No. 29.
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officials and troops, much work against malaria, worth reporting at greater length, ould have been done, accurate returns might have been made, thousands of native children could have been examined (as one medical officer can examine one hundred hildren in an hour), and at least reliable figures for the troops could have been returned. The Advisory Committee states that information cannot be given as to the administration of quinine to school children in Northern Nigeria as there are no schools there; but obviously the drug could be administered largely amongst the children whether they are school children or not; and information on this point could easily have been returned.
3. I am glad also to be able to concur in the view that members of the Medical Department of the respective Colonies often work short-handed and under great difficulties. On the other hand, I feel that a great deal too much may be made of this occasional occurrence. In my experience, though there may be a few very hard-worked medical officers, yet the majority of them have ample leisure and opportunities to carry out such sanitation duties as I refer to: Moreover, there appears to be little reason for supposing that the medical officers of the Colonies which have sent in no sufficient malaria reports are at all more hard-worked than those which have sent in good ones.
4. With regard to paragraph 4 of your letter, I must also beg respectfully to concur with the Advisory Committee on that point that repeated demands for statistical information involve considerable labour; but I feel personally inclined to question whether reasonable demands in this direction are not still justifiable. Almost in every branch of administration, officers are asked to report upon what they are doing; especially as experience proves that if they are not called upon so to report, they may end in doing little. Further, it may be remarked that the Secre- tary of State did not ask only for statistical information but for information as to work done; and I suppose that a day's labour would suffice any Principal Medical Officer to compile any such report if he has really done anything, and has taken care to keep his information at hand.
5. In conclusion, I learn with the greatest pleasure the fact mentioned in the concluding paragraph of your letter, namely, that the Advisory Committee have recommended that the importance of the measures referred to should be urged on all medical officers appointed to tropical Colonies; and am sure that as time elapses more and more work will be done in this line. My reason for writing my letter to Colonel Seely was simply to suggest such action as the Advisory Committee has now taken.
I am, &c.,
RONALD ROSS.
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