PUBLIC RECORD OFFICE
Reference :-
C.O. 885
22 PUBLIC RECORD OFFICE, LONDON
ALLY WITHOUT PERMISSION OF THE BE REPRODUCED PHOTOGRAPHIC_ COPYRIGHT PHOTOGRAPH-NOT TO
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and no experience of the working of a Survey Department. He was on a three years' engagement expiring in December 1914. The Comunittee advised that he should be given the appointment of Deputy Director, Northern Nigeria, but on his present tenure, and that when his engagement was approaching completion the question of his being retained and placed on the permanent establishment should be further considered.
44791
SIR,
No. 10. NIGERIA.
THE SECRETARY OF STATE to THE GOVERNOR-GENERAL.
(Confidential.)
[Answered by No. 11.]
Downing Street, 26th January, 1914. I HAVE the honour to acknowledge the receipt of your despatches* noted in the margin on the subject of the future arrangements for survey work in Northern Nigeria and the staff which should be provided for carrying out that work.
Northern Nigeria, Confidential, 29th Novem- ber, 1913.
Northern Nigeria, No. 347, 9th December,
1913.
Northern Nigeria, No. 356, 17th December, 1913.
Nigeria, Confidential, 24th December, 1913.
2. You will have observed from my despatch, Northern Nigeria, No. 584, of the 16th of December,† that on the receipt of your despatch, No. 324, of the 10th of November. I caused an application to be sent to the War Office for the services of two officers and five non-commissioned officers of the Royal Engineers. In view, however, of the references in your despatch to the three ex-non-commissioned officers (Messrs. Kingston, Healy, and Woram) recently appointed, the Director-General of the Ordnance Survey demurred, in the letterst of which I enclose copies, to the appointment of any other members of the Ordnance Survey Staff until their position and the conditions under which they would work had been more clearly defined.
3. I have accordingly referred the whole matter of Northern Nigeria surveys to the Colonial Survey Committee. Their recommendations, in which I concur, are summarised in the following paragraph, and I shall be glad if you are able to accept them in full. In particular, I desire to lay stress on the necessity for a compre- hensive report on the surveys by Major Guggisberg, and the desirability of uniting the whole of the surveys in Nigeria under one executive head.
4. The Committee have advised me as follows
(a) Control of Nigerian Surveys.-They attach the greatest importance to the creation of one Survey Department for Nigeria under an officer of approved qualifi- cations and experience, who would have full executive power in both Northern and Southern Nigeria. They consider that no scheme by which the Surveyor-General would have a limited or merely advisory position in Northern Nigeria could be satisfactory. They are also of opinion that the trigonometrical and topographical work of the two provinces should be under one organisation. They recommend, therefore, that there should be a Surveyor-General for Nigeria, who would be Director of Surveys in Northern Nigeria (Northern Provinces) and in Southern Nigeria (Southern Provinces), and under him three Deputy Directors, one for the Northern Provinces, one for the Southern Provinces, and one for trigonometrical and topographical work in both parts.
As regards Mr. Collard, who is on a three years' engagement, expiring in December, 1914, the Committee point out that, though he is believed to be a good railway engineer, he has no general qualifications as a surveyor, and no experience of the working of a Survey Department. They advise that he should be given the appointment of Deputy Director, Northern Provinces, but on his present tenure, and that when his engagement approaches completion the question of his being retained and placed on the permanent establishment should be further considered."
(b) Future work in Northern Nigeria.-The Committee drew my attention to the importance of ensuring that the surveys of Nigeria are carried out on a syste-
↑ 4131 not printed.
41767, 44766, 115 and File 2338; not printed.
* 14359 and 44791 ; not printed.
35
matic basis, and in accordance with a prearranged scheme, and also to the absence of any detailed information as to the lines on which work is being carried on in Northern Nigeria, and they urge strongly that Major Guggisberg should be called upon to submit such a scheme, illustrated by diagrams, dealing with the following points:-
i. A summary of the various surveys, their objects, and the order in which
they should be executed.
ii. Areas to be dealt with, and the scales of the surveys.
iii. Junction of the surveys with those of Southern Nigeria, and the
continuity of the main framework.
iv. Adoption of the same set of rules for the different surveys.
v. General co-ordination of the surveys.
vi. Interchangeability of personnel.
vii. Future of the survey school at Kano, and the use of native surveyors.
viii. The inter-relation of revenue and survey work.
ix. A special report on the minefields survey.
x. Finance.
(c) Staff-The Committee consider that it will be necessary to establish a permanent civilian staff, and that the only satisfactory course would be for Nigeria to accept, for both Southern and Northern Nigeria, the Survey Probationer scheme already adopted in Ceylon, the Malay States, and Uganda. Copies of the latest edition of the pamphlet* relating to these appointments are enclosed. University men are becoming available in increasing numbers for Survey Probationerships, and any university men who might present themselves for appointment to Nigeria would be of the same type, and would require the same training. The Committee doubt whether retired officers of the Army or Navy could be found for appointment in Nigeria.
As regards the Institute of Civil Engineers, I may take this opportunity of observing that the request which was made to that body on the 20th of September last has up to the present resulted in only one application being received.
The Committee consider, however, that the services of non-commissioned officers are essential for immediate requirements, and the Director-General of the Ordnance Survey has agreed that no further objection need be raised to the employment of the men who have been asked for. He desires, however, that stress should be laid on the fact that it has always been held to be desirable that non-commissioned officers should work under Army, rather than under civilian, officers, and that it should be pointed out that they have, under these conditions, done excellent work in Southern Nigeria and the Gold Coast, as well as in other parts of tropical Africa. In North. ern Nigeria itself, as you are aware, the party of non-commissioned officers under Captain Giles succeeded, in spite of certain disadvantages, in practically completing the programme allotted to them in a very satisfactory manner.
With regard to the five additional surveyors asked for in your despatch, No. 356, of the 17th of December,t the Committee suggest that, for the reasons referred to above, non-commissioned officers of Royal Engineers should be selected as Major Guggisberg recommended, and that it is unnecessary to defer their departure so as to provide for their arrival about the end of March. Arrangements will, therefore. be made for their selection at the same time as those referred to in paragraph 2 of this despatch, i.e., for two officers and ten non-commissioned officers in all. It is considered desirable, for the convenience of the War Office and the Ordnance Survey in replacing them, that they should be engaged for two tours of service, and I have agreed to this, as there seems to be no doubt that they will be kept fully employed for that time. It is clearly to the advantage of the Government that the experience and local knowledge gained by a non-commissioned officer should not be lost through his having to be replaced at the end of his first tour of service.
(d) Special Minefields Party—In the report enclosed in your despatch, No. 356, of the 17th of December, Major Guggisberg suggests that Captain Giles and five non- commissioned officers of the first party should be re-engaged for another tour, return- ing to Nigeria in September, 1914. This proposal is supported by the Committee, and it appears to me desirable that it should be adopted."
• Miscellaneous No. 225 (November, 1913).
33547
↑ 415; not printed.
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