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the Under-Secretary of State for the Colonies, and, by direction of the Secretary of State, transmits herewith copy of a note addressed by His Majesty's Ambassador at Paris to the French Minister for Foreign Affairs, dated May 25, respecting the preservation of elephants in Africa.
Reference to previous letter: Foreign Office, May 19.*
Foreign Office,
May 29, 1913.
MONSIEUR LE Ministre,
Enclosure in No. 31.
British Embassy, Paris, May 25th, 1913. MONSIEUR POINCARE was good enough to inform me by a communication dated October 22nd last that the French Government were unable to express an opinion on the proposal for raising the limit of weight at which elephant tusks might be traded in or exported from African possessions until the "Comité de la Chasse Coloniale" had considered the question.
As I had the honour to inform Monsieur Poincaré in a previous communica- tion, the proposals of His Majesty's Government with regard to this question were favourably received by the Governments of Germany, Italy, Spain, and Portugal, though their adoption was, in some cases, made conditional upon their acceptance by all the countries concerned.
The Belgian Government, in reply to representations from His Majesty's Government, explained that the Congo Free State, with the idea of preserving elephants, had forbidden any being killed whose tusks weighed under ten kilo- grammes. The Belgian Colonial Administration had at first maintained this prohibition. It was found, however, that this measure was not efficacious, as the existence of a different law in the neighbouring French Colony of Equatorial Africa encouraged the illegal hunting of elephants ("braconnage ") in the Belgian terri- tory. Persons in possession of elephants' tusks weighing less than ten kilogrammes were easily able to dispose of them by sending them into the French Colony. In view of these circumstances, which entailed a loss to the Belgian Colonial Treasury and the abandonment of a source of trade into the hands of persons on the Belgian frontier engaged in fraudulent practices to the detriment of honest traders, a new decree was issued by the Belgian Administration permitting the hunting of elephants whose tusks did not weigh less than two kilogrammes.
The Belgian Government has, nevertheless, informed His Majesty's Govern- ment that they are prepared to join with other Governments in taking measures to prevent undue destruction of elephants, and would not hesitate in particular to rescind the recent decree if the circumstances which induced them to issue it ceased to exist.
The Belgian Government specifically state that, if His Majesty's Government could persuade the French Government to take measures for the preservation of elephants in accordance with the proposals submitted to the various Governments concerned, the Belgian Government would be disposed to adopt similar steps to those adopted with this end in view in French Equatorial Africa.
I should be greatly obliged if Your Excellency would be good enough to inform me whether the French Government are now in a position to express an opinion on the proposals for preserving elephants which have been submitted to them by His Majesty's Government.
His Excellency
Monsieur Stephen Pichon,
Minister for Foreign Affairs,
I have, &c.,
FRANCIS BERTIE.
20514
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No. 32.
LIST OF REFERENCES TO PUBLISHED WORKS BEARING ON THE QUESTION OF THE RELATION OF WILD ANIMALS TO SLEEPING SICKNESS.
BRUCE (David). Further Report on the Tsetse Fly Disease or Nagana in Zululand.
1897. London: Harrison and Sons. 69 pp.
Appendix to Further Report on the Tsetse Fly Disease or Nagana in Zululand.
1903. London: Harrison and Sons. 21 pp.
AUSTEN (E. E.). A Monograph of the Tsetse-Flies (Genus glossina, Westwood) based on the Collection in the British Museum, with a Chapter on Mouth-Parts by II. J. Hansen.
1903. ix + 319 pp. with 9 plates. London: Printed by Order of the
Trustees.
Koch (Robert). Remarks on Trypanosome Diseases.
(British Medical Journal. 1904. Nov. 26. pp. 1445-1449). Translated from: Deutsche medizinische Wochenschrift. 1904. Nov. 17. No. 47. Pp. 1705-1711,
CARTER (R. Markham). Tsetse-Fly in Arabia.
(British Medical Journal. 1906. Nov. 17. Pp. 1393-94).
AUSTEN (E. E.). The Dependence or Non-Dependence of Tsetse-Flies upon Big Game, with Special Reference to the Species of Tsetse known as Glossing palpalis and Sleeping Sickness. (Journal of the Society for the Preserva- tion of the Wild Fauna of the Empire. 1908. Vol. 4. Pp. 11-25.) MONTGOMERY AND KINGHORN. A Further Report on Trypanosomiasis of Domestic Stock in Northern Rhodesia (North-Eastern Rhodesia). (Annals of Tropical Medicine and Parasitology. 1909. Vol. 3. Pp. 311-374). BRUCE (Sir David), HAMERTON (A. E.), BATEMAN (H. R.), and MACKIE (F. P.). Experiments to ascertain if Cattle may act as a Reservoir of the Virus of Sleeping Sickness (Trypanosoma gambiense).
(Proceedings of the Royal Society. 1910. Vol. 82. Ser. B. Pp. 480- 484), and
(Reports of the Sleeping Sickness Commission of the Royal Society. No. 11, pp. 71-75.)
BRUCE (Sir David), HAMERTON (A. E.), and BATEMAN (H. R.). Experiments to ascertain if Antelope may act as a Reservoir of the Virus of Sleeping Sickness (Trypanosoma gambiense).
(Proceedings of the Royal Society, 1911. Vol. 83. Ser. B., pp. 311- 327), and
(Reports of the Sleeping Sickness Commission of the Royal Society. No. 11, pp. 75-92.)
CAMERON. Sleeping Sickness Bulletin. 1911. Vol. 3, p. 363.
KLEINE (F. K.) and FISCHER (W.). Die Rolle der Säugetiere bei der Verbreitung der Schlafkrankheit und Trypanosomenbefunde bei Säugetieren ani Tanganyka.
(Zeitschrift für Hygiene und Infektionskrankheiten. 1911. pp. 1-23. With 1 plate).
Vol. 70,
Vol. 3.,
[For summary in English see Sleeping Sickness Bulletin. p. 402.] FRASER (A. D.) and DUKE (H. L.). Antelope infected with Trypanosoma gambiense. (Proceedings of the Royal Society. 1912. Vol. 84. Ser. B. Pp. 484-492.) KINGHORN (Allan) and YORKE (Warrington). On the Transmission of Human Trypanosomes by Glossina morsitans Westw.; and on the Occurrence of Human Trypanosomes in Game. (First Interim Report of the Luangwa Sleeping Sickness Commission, British South Africa Company.)
(Annals of Tropical Medicine and Parasitology. 1912. March 29. Vol. 6. No. 1. A. Pp. 1-23.)
DUKE (H. L.). Antelope and their Relation to Trypanosomiasis.
(Proceedings of the Royal Society. 1912. Vol. 95. Ser. B. No. B 577, pp. 156-169. With 1 plate.)
• 17069: not printed.
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