39867
54*
No. 54..
COLONIAL OFFICE to MR. J. J. SIMPSON.
[Answered by No. 55.]
SIR,
Downing Street, 27 November, 1913. WITH reference to the letter from this Department of the 29th of September, 1909,* I am directed by Mr. Secretary Harcourt to inform you that, on the recom- mendation of the Managing Committee of the Imperial Bureau of Entomology, he proposes to offer you further employment as Travelling Entomologist in West Africa for a period of three years.
2. The conditions of the appointment will be the same as those on which you have been serving since the 15th of December, 1909, except that the salary will be £500 per annum rising by annual increments of £25 to £600 per annum instead of £500 per annum fixed, and that you will be permitted to enter this scale at £525 as from the date of your embarkation from this country for West Africa.
3. In accordance with the West African leave regulations under which you are serving, you have been granted two months' and forty days' vacation leave with full pay at the rate of £500 per annum from the 19th of July, the date on which you arrived in this country from the Gold Coast, and in the event of your returning for another tour of service in West Africa you will be granted return leave for a period of two months with full pay in addition to the vacation leave.
4. I am to request that you will inform me at your early convenience whether or not you are willing to accept this offer of further employment in West Africa.
I am, &c.,
H. J. READ,
for the Under-Secretary of State.
SIR,
(New Hebrides. No. 168.) (Solomons. No. 221.)
55
Enclosure in No. 56.
(Gilbert and Ellice. No. 279.) (Tonga. No. 106.)
Office of the High Commissioner for the Western Pacific,
Suva, Fiji, 15th October, 1913. I HAVE the honour to transmit to you a copy of a despatch* from the Secretary of State for the Colonies, and to ask you to be so good as to invite [the Principal Medical Officer of the Condominium] [the Senior Medical Officer of your Pro- tectorate] [the Chief Medical Officer of Tonga] to supply the Director of the Imperial Bureau of Entomology at the British Museum (Natural History), Cromwell Road, London, S.W., with the desired information as to the distribution of mosquitoes, and, in particular, of Stegomyia, in the Western Pacific, and with a collection of mosquitoes.
2. I shall be much obliged if I may be favoured with a copy of the report sent to the Director of the Imperial Bureau of Entomology.
His Britannic Majesty's
Do. Do.
Resident Commissioner,
New Hebrides.
I have, &o.,
British Solomon Islands Protectorate. Gilbert and Ellice Islands Protectorate.
His Britannic Majesty's Agent and Consul,
Tonga.
BICKHAM ESCOTT,
High Commissioner.
41800
41834
No. 57.
No. 55.
MR. J. J. SIMPSON to COLONIAL OFFICE. (Received 4 December, 1913.)
SIR,
I HAVE the honour to acknowledge receipt of your letter, 39867/1913, of the 27th November,† and note the offer and conditions therein.
62, Academy Street, Elgin, 30 November, 1913.
In accordance with these I shall be pleased to continue my appointment in West Africa.
I have, &c.,
JAS. J. SIMPSON.
FOREIGN OFFICE to COLONIAL OFFICE.
(Received 5 December, 1913.)
The Under-Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs presents his compliments to the Under-Secretary of State for the Colonies, and, by direction of the Secretary of State, transmits herewith copy of a despatch from His Majesty's Ambassader, Tokio, No. 297, dated November 12, respecting the distribution of mosquitoes in Japan. Reference to previous letter: Colonial Office, August 25 (26678/13).† Foreign Office,
December 4, 1913.
41407
No. 56.
SIR,
WESTERN PACIFIC.
THE HIGH COMMISSIONER to THE SECRETARY OF STATE.
(No. 391.)
(Received 1 December, 1913.)
Office of the High Commissioner for the Western Pacific,
Suva, Fiji, 15th October, 1913.
I HAVE the honour to transmit to you, for your information, copy of letters to Resident Commissioners, and to Agent and Consul, Tonga, dated 15th October, 1913, on the subject of the reports required respecting the distribution of mosquitoes in the Western Pacific.
I have, &c.,
BICKHAM ESCOTT,
High Commissioner.
Reference to previous correspondence: Secretary of State's despatch, No. 216, of 23rd August, 1913.‡
SIR,
(No. 297.)
Enclosure in No. 57.
British Embassy, Tokio, November 12, 1913. I COMMUNICATED in due course to His Excellency the Minister for Foreign Affairs the contents of your despatch, No. 105, of the 29th of August last, on the subject of the distribution of stegomyia in Japan, and I now have the honour to report that I have received from His Excellency a reply to the effect that the department concerned will cause investigations to be made with all possible despatch into the distribution of this and other species of mosquito in the territories of Japan, and that the information thus obtained, together with specimens, will be sent direct from the Laboratory for the Study of Contagious Diseases to the British Museum.
I have, &c.,
The Right Honourable
Sir E. Grey, Bart., K.G.,
&c.,
&c.,
&c.
CONYNGHAM GREENE.
• 38539/09: not printed.
↑ No. 54.
‡ No. 27.
39518
• No. 27.
↑ No. 28.
D 4
PUBLIC RECORD OFFICE
Reference :-
23 PUBLIC RECORD OFFICE, LONDON
ALLY WITHOUT PERMISSION OF THE BE REPRODUCED PHOTOGRAPHIC- COPYRIGHT PHOTOGRAPH-NOT TOPage 31
PUBLIC RECORD OFFICE
[TT]
Reference:~~
C.O. 885
42046
56
No. 58.
HONG KONG.
THE ACTING GOVERNOR to THE SECRETARY OF STATE.
(No. 393:) SIR,
(Received 6 December, 1913.)
Government House, Hong Kong, 11th November, 1913. WITH reference to your despatch, No. 254, of the 22nd of August,* I have the honour to inform you that an interim report, of which I enclose a copy, by the Bacteriologist, on the mosquitoes found in Hong Kong, has been sent to the Director of the Bureau of Entomology at the British Museum, with the appendices in original. 2. A collection of more than three thousand specimens of the genus stegomyia is also being sent to the Director, and Dr. Macfarlane has asked that he may be supplied with named specimens of every species of mosquito sent by him, not only on this, but on future occasions.
3. A collection of the mosquitoes found in Hong Kong generally will be for- warded about once in every fortnight until the whole of the present collection has been despatched, and it is expected that in this way about ten or twelve thousand more specimens will be dealt with.
I have, &c.,
CLAUD SEVERN, Officer Administering the Government.
57
Up to the 22nd October, 1913, 2,812 samples of larvæ have been collected, of which 1,343 samples were taken in the City of Victoria, and 1,457 samples from elsewhere in the Colony.
The work has been essentially a part-time investigation only, and details of the staff employed are given in Appendix A.*
It will be convenient to divide the work into two main divisions :-
(1) A search for Stegomyia fasciata and for stegomyia in general.
(2) A general collection of anophelines and culicines.
1. The Stegomyia survey of the City of Victoria.
The period covered in this report is from July 1st, 1912, to September 30th, 1913.
The survey has, so far, been confined almost entirely to the City of Victoria, as it was thought that Stegomyia fasciata, if present, would most likely be found there. A few samples, however, have been taken from Kowloon, especially round the wharves and godowns.
The number of visits made, and the number of houses in which larvæ were found, are shown in Appendix B,* but they may be briefly summarised here :-
A. Inspector Watson-July 1st, 1912, to June 30th, 1913...
B. The Sanitary Staff, consisting of eight District Inspeotors-August 1st, 1912, to September 30th,
1913
Total visits
2,896 visits.
17,344
31
20,240
13
23 PUBLIC RECORD OFFICE, LONDON
ALLY WITHOUT PERMISSION OF THE BE REPRODUCED PHOTOGRAPHIC- COPYRIGHT PHOTOGRAPH-NOT TO
Enclosure in No. 58.
INTERIM REPOrt on an InveSTIGATION OF THE MOSQUITOES OF HONG KONG by the GOVERNMENT BACTERIOLOGIST.
Previous mosquito investigations.-The only systematic mosquito work carried out in Hong Kong prior to the present investigation was that done by Dr. J. C. Thomson during the twelve months--1st October, 1900, to 30th September, 1901.
During this period Dr. Thomson devoted his whole time to the investigation, which he carried out almost entirely by an examination of captured adults, and his results are embodied in a "Report regarding the mosquitoes that occur in the Colony of Hong Kong," dated the 15th February, 1902.
This report records three anophelines and seven culicines as being found in Hong Kong or the New Territory.
Of the genus stegomyia Stegomyia scutellaris is alone described; this species is recorded as having been taken in the Central Police Station, Police Stations Nos. 1-8, and at every other Police Station in the Colony. The only place where it was not found was on Stonecutter's Island.
No mention is made of Stegomyia fasciata, and as the investigation took place almost before the importance of Stegomyia fasciata, as regards yellow fever, was recognised, it might be concluded that no special search was made for this species. Dr. Thomson, however, in a letter to me dated 12th August, 1912, states: "I was quite alive to the importance, in the near future, to Hong Kong of the presence or otherwise of Stegomyia fasciata, and looked for it, but no specimens came under my eye."
Taking mosquitoes as a whole, Dr. Thomson notes that he examined 31,390 adult specimens, of which 96.3 per cent. were culicines.
The present investigation.The present investigation commenced in July, 1912, and still continues; the work at present is in a somewhat incomplete condition, as the intention was to carry on the investigation for some months longer before assembling the results.
The method of carrying out the work has been to collect larvæ and pupa and then breed out the adult insect. From each sample of larvæ, provided it was taken from one definite place and was found to breed one species, only a few (four to six or so) were pinned and kept. The rest were looked over and discarded.
• No. 27.
+
Inspector Watson confined his visits to the streets lying nearest to the harbour, the area searched by him being :-
The praya from Kennedy Town to Causeway Bay, by Queen's Road West, Pok- fulam Road, Bonham Road, down Eastern Street to Queen's Road, along Queen's Road to Wanchai Road, and hence to Valley and Causeway Bay. Taking on an average every fourth house, this area was gone over by him on several occasions, so this area may be considered to have been very thoroughly searched.
The Sanitary staff visits were not restricted to any special area, but were spread over the whole City of Victoria. It has to be noted that these visits were not paid specially to search for larvæ, but only in the course of their routine sanitary duties. This accounts for the very low percentage of finds to visits made recorded by the Sanitary staff.
Appendix B* gives the percentage of houses in which larvæ were found to visits made. This percentage varies very much with the season of the year, but Inspector Watson's results are always much higher than those of the Sanitary staff. Thus, Inspector Watson records positive results varying from 80 per cent. downwards, whereas the highest result obtained by the Sanitary staff is 12 per cent.
Judging from the visits which I myself have made, I do not think Inspector Watson's figures over-estimate the prevalence of mosquito larvæ in houses in the City of Victoria; in fact, his results would have been higher if he had not become so well known to the Chinese that his appearance in a street was a signal for a general emptying of pots, water barrels, &c., with the result that, after the first few houses had been visited, only empty dishes were found.
The percentages recorded by the Sanitary staff are, therefore, in my opinion, quite misleading, being much too low. Out of 1,355 samples of larvæ from the City, with the exception of a few Culex fatigans and Desvoidea obturbans, all were stegomyia larvie.
Of the genus stegomyia so far I have only been able to identify one specimen (sample No. 446) as being Stegomyia fasciata. This was taken from Jervois Street -one of the most densely built-over areas. The specimen has been placed in Box I. for examination at the British Museum (Natural History).
All the other samples of stegomyia larvæ bred out to Stegomyia scutellaris or some closely-allied varieties of it. This species can be found almost anywhere in the city and on the hillsides. It is undoubtedly the commonest mosquito in the Colony. A first instalment of 3,182 specimens of Stegomyia scutellaris, or closely-allied varieties, and including one specimen of Stegomyia fasciata, marked No. 446, is now
• Not received in Colonial Office.