5
Į
PUBLIC RECORD OFFICE
C.O. 8
Reference :-
885
21 PUBLIC RECORD OFFICE, LONDON ALLY WITHOUT PERMISSION OF THE BE REPRODUCED PHOTOGRAPHIC- COPYRIGHT PHOTOGRAPH-NOT TO
3408
No. 4.
NYASALAND.
THE GOVERNOR to THE SECRETARY OF STATE
(Received 2 February, 1910.)
[Copy to Sleeping Sickness Bureau, 4 February, 1910. L.F.]
(No. 348.)
MY LORD,
Government House, Zomba, Nyasaland Protectorate,
16 December, 1909. I HAVE the honour to transmit, for your Lordship's information, with reference to your Lordship's 226 of the 24th of September, 1909,* and prior correspondence, a copy of a despatch from the Acting Administrator of North-Eastern Rhodesia respecting sleeping sickness on the North-Eastern Rhodesia-Congolese frontier.
On behalf of this Administration I welcome it, and I can assure Your Excellency that it will be most readily participated in by every medical and other official here.
4167
I have, &c.,
ALFRED SHARPE,
Governor.
SIR,
Enclosure in No. 4.
L. P. BEAUFORT, Acting Administrator, Fort Jameson, to THE GOVERNOR, Nyasaland Protectorate.
25th November, 1909.
SIR,
I HAVE the honour to thank you for the information contained in your two letters, No. 1690 of 10th instant, on the subject of the measures taken in the Congo Free State to deal with sleeping sickness.
2. When I was on Lake Mweru in September, I learned with great satisfaction that the Congolese authorities had then lately been destroying some villages on the west bank of the Luapula with a view to the removal inland of the villages. I could not ascertain whether any canoes had been destroyed.
3. It is perfectly true that every step taken by this Administration has met with considerable resistance from the natives, that many breaches of rules have occurred, and therefore our best efforts have been in some cases frustrated.
But a great number of villages have been moved away from the Luapula River and Lake Tanganyika, and a great many canoes have been taken and confiscated and their owners compensated by this Administration.
4. There are many difficulties. I have reason to believe that in some instances natives have succeeded in crossing the Luapula to obtain work in the Congo mines; in a few cases patients suffering from sleeping sickness have absconded from the Sleeping Sickness Camps (where everything possible is done to make them comfort- able), and I am afraid that many canoes still lie in the Luapula marshes, hidden by day probably, but used at night. Where villages have been removed, the work of finding fresh gardens for them and the provision of food for these villagers has not been accomplished without trouble or expense, especially in the case of those who have hitherto relied on fish as a staple food.
5. The matter mentioned by Monsieur Tonneau, and referred to in the Note from the Belgian Foreign Office dated 9th September, requires explanation, since it amounts nearly to a statement that a measure ordered (of which the fulfilment should be easy) has not been carried out by this Administration. But the reverse is the case. In the district referred to, between the rivers Mununshi and Sakalua, the villagers were not ordered to remove, as neither morsitans nor palpalis had been found there; but in case future research should reveal its existence, which was deemed to be probable, all the small villages were ordered to merge into three large villages, where special watchmen were placed to report all movements and events. The consequent building of new huts was doubtless what Mons. Tonneau saw. This portion, too, is under the observation of a Medical Officer engaged sleeping sickness work entirely, whose headquarters are at Fort Rosebery in the near neighbourhood.
6. In conclusion, I am sure that the co-operation so generously promised by the Belgian Foreign Office and the Katanga, authorities can only have an excellent result.
• 30948; not printed.
I have, &c.,
L. P. BEAUFORT,
Acting Administrator.
No. 5.
RHODESIA.
BRITISH SOUTH AFRICA COMPANY to COLONIAL OFFICE.
(Received February 11, 1910.)
[Copy of enclosure to Sleeping Sickness Bureau, February 23, 1910.] [Answered by No. 9.]
2, London Wall Buildings, London, E.C.,
10th February, 1910. I AM directed to forward, for the information of the Secretary of State, the enclosed copy of the minutes* of a meeting of my Directors, held on the 3rd instant, together with the documents relating thereto.
I am, &c.,
SIR,
A. T. MILLAR,
Assistant Secretary.
Enclosure in No. 5.
(Annexure 8.)
(Received 31st January, 1910.)
Administrator's Office, Salisbury, 8th January, 1910.
I AM directed by the Administrator to inform you that as a result of a recent tour of inspection in the Tanganyika, Mweru, and Luapula Districts of North- Eastern Rhodesia, Dr. May, the Principal Medical Officer of North-Eastern and North-Western Rhodesia, is recommending that these districts, which have for a long time been closed on account of sleeping sickness, should be thrown open for the recruitment of labour for Southern Rhodesia.
In making this recommendation Dr. May has stipulated for certain additional precautions as regards transport and selection of the natives recruited.
The Administrator is informed that a very large number of natives (probably from seven to ten thousand) will be available from this source.
The Rhodesian Native Labour Bureau is prepared to agree to the medical conditions for which Dr. May stipulates, but in view of the additional cost per native involved in carrying out these conditions and in transporting the natives over such a long distance, it has made representations to the Administration of North-Eastern Rhodesia with the object of substituting an 18 months' contract for the present 12 months' one, and has stated its willingness to allow every labourer who agrees to a two years' contract to bring his wife and children with him at the expense of the Bureau.
His Honour Mr. Beaufort has consented generally to the Bureau's proposals, but states that the length of service must be left optional, as he cannot consent to put pressure on the natives in this respect.
Dr. May met the Medical Director, Dr. Fleming, at Bulawayo last month, and stated that his object in recommending the opening of these areas for recruiting was to check the further spread of sleeping sickness infection.
His reasons are fully set out in the enclosed extract from a letter sent to Dr. Fleming on the 28th December.
His Honour directs me to draw your attention to the statement in this letter that large numbers of natives are leaving the closed areas and obtaining work in the
• Not printed.
↑ Annexure 8 only printed.
Page 360Page 361
PUBLIC RECORD OFFICE
Reference :-
TPEPEC.O. 885
21 PUBLIC RECORD OFFICE, LONDON
ALLY WITHOUT PERMISSION OF THE BE REPRODUCED PHOTOGRAPHIC- COPYRIGHT PHOTOGRAPH-NOT TO
G
Congo territory, where the precautions against sleeping sickness are known to be lax, and considers that this tendency can best be counteracted by diverting the labour to Southern Rhodesia.
In view of any possible misgivings as to the danger of allowing natives from these areas to enter Southern Rhodesia, I am directed to refer you to the addendum to Bulletin No. 11, of the Sleeping Sickness Bureau of 1909, containing the report by Professor Dr. Kleine on "Trypanosomes and Tsetse Flies, and details of his experiments, demonstrating that he was unable to communicate the sleeping sick- ness through the agency of Glossina morsitans.
The Medical Director is of opinion that if confirmed by other observers this conclusion is of far-reaching importance to Southern Rhodesia, as it will definitely place this territory beyond the limit of possible infection.
On the assumption (now justifiable) that Southern Rhodesia is free from any agent capable of transmitting sleeping sickness, it would seem to be better policy that natives from the districts referred to should be encouraged to come here, where they are much needed, in lieu of seeking employment in the Congo territory.
I am, &c.,
The Secretary,
H. MARSHALL HOLE, Secretary,
Department of the Administrator.
British South Africa Company,
London Wall Buildings,
London, E.C.
EXTRACT from a letter received by Dr. Fleming, from Dr. A. May, Livingstone, dated 28th December, 1909.
My reasons for recommending the opening of these areas to recruiting was in order to check the further spread of infection.
My opinion that this step would be followed by that result is based on the following grounds: -
(1) That by providing a legitimate source of employment, and incidentally one possessing many advantages, such as higher rate of pay, travelling facilities, &c., the native might be induced to select this in preference to other employment, which can only be obtained at the risk of breaking regulations (the rate of wages paid by the Southern Rhodesia mines is considerably higher than that paid in Belgian territory).
(2) That movement to Southern Rhodesia is unattended by risk of infection,
whereas the risk is very great in crossing into the Congo Free State. The risk of importing cases of sleeping sickness into Southern Rhodesia owing to the careful medical supervision would probably be less that it is at present. The chances of its spread, did it happen to be introduced, and in the absence of a trans- mitting agent, would probably be nil.
The conditions at present are practically these. Large numbers of natives are leaving the closed areas and obtaining work in Belgian territory, where I regret to say considerable inducement seems to be offered them to do so. This, I think, may be looked upon as the natural result of continuing to maintain these closed areas as they at present exist, and necessitating, as it does, the confinement of large numbers of natives willing and anxious to work and who do not seem to appreciate the reason why they are not allowed to do so. These closed areas have now been some three years in existence, and so far have undoubtedly justified the purpose for which they were first recommended by Dr. Spillane, as proved by the fact that up to the present not more than 65 cases have been found, after much careful search, in a population which probably amounts to 100,000 people, or a very small fractional percentage as compared with our neighbours, the Germans, who, I understand, admit " decima- tion," and the Belgians, who are reported to have a considerable incidence of the disease along their borders.
The disease is undoubtedly endemic, if by that you mean that a cause exists locally. This I fear will continue to be so as long as the fly exists, and infection is provided for it by our neighbours.
The total number of cases found up to the present in this division (Luapula) Of these, 21 have come from between the Mansa and the Sakaluwa,
amount to 25.
·
7
and the history obtained from these patients seems to point to the infection having been contracted in this area. The disease is endemic there. On this account arrangements are now being made to move all villages in this district still further away from the river, and exercise more strict supervision as to native movements. A. MAY.
4752
No. 6.
MEMORANDUM.
In the February number of the Bulletin, now in the press, I have given an account of a year's progress in our knowledge of Glossina palpalis, and have pointed out that, though the existence of sleeping sickness depends entirely upon the existence of the fly which conveys it, the study of this insect is being neglected. Drugs, even if more efficient than any we possess to-day, will enable us neither to stem the advance nor to restrict to any marked extent the ravages of sleeping sickness amongst natives, and in any case it is but common sense to aim at preventing rather than at curing. In my opinion the study of the insect carrier should occupy the prominent place now assigned to treatment. I have been specially struck with the uselessness of the Uganda segregation camps, regarded in any other light than as homes of the dying, after reading the reports, which reach me monthly, of the medical officers in charge. These officers have to spend much of their time over the minutiae of the management of a large encampment and in planting native crops to feed their patients. As to the treatment, it is a continual record of failure, chiefly because the infected natives do not come till their cases are hopeless. Mean- time the Principal Medical Officer reports that he is unable to spare a medical officer for fly investigation, and so a promising line of research is abandoned. must be remembered that, while much of the research on treatment can be, and is being, carried out in Europe, for our knowledge of the tsetse we are entirely dependent on workers in Tropical Africa.
It
It is suggested that trypanosome infection is most easily prevented by the avoidance of palpalis areas. This is true for certain parts of Africa such as Uganda, but not for large districts further west where such areas are confluent. Optimists say that a time will come when the population removed from the lake shore of the Victoria Nyanza can be allowed to return. Have they considered that sleeping sickness has been known to last eight years and may very probably last much longer; that having regard to the ease with which nearly all mammals can be infected with Trypanosoma gambiense it is highly probable that a
"reservoir host," in the form of some wild animal, exists on the lake shore, and that even if the flies became harmless and a healthy population were planted on that shore the arrival of one infected person from another and not necessarily distant part of Africa would cause reinfection of the flies and the beginning of a new epidemic cycle? To suppose that the people of Uganda can even be replaced on the palpalis- haunted shores of the Victoria Nyanza is to take a view which, in the present state of our knowledge, cannot be justified.
The time has come when, if we are not to be worsted, defensive methods must be replaced by offensive. To the increase of Glossina palpalis there must be natural restrictions--enemies of various kinds, and perhaps diseases, as well as limitation of food supply. The number in any area, suitable breeding-grounds being at hand and the climatal conditions being favourable, depends on these factors. Equilibrium is maintained, the fly now increasing, now diminishing. Had we complete know- ledge of such factors and there is no reason why we should not obtain it—we could tip the balance against the fly. It may be said that the Entomological Research scheme is to bring us this knowledge. It will certainly assist, but its scope is wide and it will not focus attention on the one genus of dipterous insects which is of supreme importance for the trypanologist.
Amongst the medical officers of the Tropical African Colonies there must be some with a sufficient knowledge of entomology who would welcome the opportunity of studying the tsetse flies. Two or three such men might, if they were given a free hand, make discoveries which would enable us to wage successful war against a free hand," for in Uganda the palpalis and other species of Glossing. I say medical officers detailed for this work, of whom I was one, had so much ground to cover that it was not possible to begin any observation for which more than a few days were needed.
"