PUBLIC RECORD OFFICE
Reference :--
C.O. 8
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21 PUBLIC RECORD OFFICE, LONDON
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bacteriologist in the East Africa Protectorate, a veterinary officer has been recently appointed to Uganda, and the expert who carried out the Southern Nigerian investiga tions is being appointed to Nyasaland. So far then as work on the spot is concerned, matters have reached the stage when better progress may be expected.
In this country an arrangement has been in existence for some time under which post-graduate instruction, with special reference to tropical veterinary medicine, has been given by Sir J. MacFadyean at the Royal Veterinary College. The Board of Agriculture has recently made an annual grant of £500 a year to Sir J. McFadyean, which will enable him to provide himself with two assistants and thus to place his arrangements on a better basis. Moreover a certain amount of research work in. connexion with tropical veterinary medicine is carried out at the laboratory of the Board of Agriculture at Wembley. Professor Nuttall's experiments with regard to redwater in cattle were conducted there, and with additional funds other pieces of research work could be taken up.
Excellent work is being done by Dr. Theiler and his staff at the fine veterinary laboratory of the Transvaal Government, and would be usefully supplemented by any investigations relating to other animal diseases in the tropical Colonies and Protectorates.
This branch of science is not only of great importance from the purely veterinary point of view, but it also has an important bearing on the diseases of man in the tropics, e.g., in connexion with trypanosomiasis.
(f) The Advisory Medical and Sanitary Committee for Tropical Africa.-This Committee is the outcome of the Departmental Committee appointed by Lord Crewe to inquire into the duties, organisation, emoluments, and selection of officers of the West African Medical Staff.
That Committee was of opinion that an Advisory Committee would enable the Colonial Office to maintain closer relations with the medical profession and with inedical science, that it would be of assistance in forming a link between the Colonial Office and the agencies, such as the Schools of Tropical Medicine and University Appoint- ments Board, which at present are the chief extraneous bodies through whom candidates for medical appointments are obtained and that still more important assistance would be rendered by it in that it would form a body capable of offering expert advice on questions connected with tropical medicine and hygiene.
The Departmental Committee saw no difficulty, in view of the similarity of the problems involved, in extending the functions of the Advisory Committee to East as well as West Africa, and added that the question whether the functions of such an Advisory Committee should include the tendering of advice on medical and sanitary questions in Colonies other than those in East or West Africa did not fall within the terms of reference, but that it was inclined to think that such an extension deserved serious con- sideration.
The Committee is a purely advisory body and its chief function is to consider such questions of a medical or sanitary nature as the Secretary of State may wish to refer to it, and to offer him its advice as to the decision which should be taken. Such questions comprise schemes for drainage and water supply, plans for the prevention or stamping out of epidemic disease, &c. In addition the
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Committee advises as to the selection of candidates for the West and East Africa medical staffs, as to the filling of vacancies by promotion in the senior ranks, &c.
At present the West African work alone is amply sufficient to occupy the time of the Committee, and, except as regards the selection of candidates, its activities are for the moment confined to West Africa.
I think that it would be well to let these two Committees (e) and (f) remain as they are for the present and to see how they develop.
Turning now to the four other Committees (a), (b), (c), and (d), it will be seen
that they have at their disposal:--
Committee (a)
of which
Total
"
$1
Total
Nil.
£8,470 a year.
1,230 2,000
11
+3
£6,700 a year,
£2,930 is subscribed by the Imperial
Government,
2,770 by the Colonies,
500 by India,
300 by the Soudan,
200 by the Rhodes Trustees.
£6,700
The sum at the disposal of the four Committees is therefore small, and it will have been gathered from what has been said above that ten times the amount could be profitably spent.
The question arises as to how further funds are to be raised. I am not in favour of asking the Colonies to increase their contributions. They are incurring con- siderable expenditure in connexion with their own research institutions and with administrative measures for the prevention or suppression of disease, and I think that their money would be more usefully employed in perfect. ing these institutions and measures than in making further contributions to the funds of the Committees. The Indian Government and the Rhodes Trustees have shown no disposition to increase their contributions, and there is no good ground for asking the Soudan Govern. ment for more. The Imperial Government is not likely
to increase its contribution to any great extent, and we are therefore thrown back upon an appeal to the public for further funds. I see no reason why such an appeal should not be successful. Quite recently three separate benefactors have given a sum of about £200,000 each for Cancer Research, Medical Scholarships, and Dental Aid for the Poor, while our appeal would be on behalf of all our Government officials, soldiers, sailors, traders, missionaries, &c., working in the tropics, and some hundreds of millions of natives. Moreover, it would not be an appeal on behalf of any one institution, but on behalf of all the institutions and workers in this country connected with tropical medi- cine, and should therefore meet with general approval and support. In a case of this kind I think that, within limits, the larger the sum asked for the greater the chance of success, as many people will contribute to a comprehensive