PUBLIC RECORD OFFICE
Reference :-
:། ། ། ། mmimmim.C.O. 885
23 PUBLIC RECORD OFFICE, LONDON
ALLY WITHOUT PERMISSION OF THE BE REPRODUCED PHOTOGRAPHIC- COPYRIGHT PHOTOGRAPH-NOT TO
(No. 87/1914.) (Extract.)
SIR,
36
Veterinary Department, Coomassie, Gold Coast,
**
24th April, 1914.
*
14. On the morning of the 25th I thought it advisable to send Mr. Kaye, the dispenser pupil, up the Manje-Banda road to visit the villages on this road where cattle are bred. After seeing Mr. Kaye set off, I set out for Braba, and after about two and a half hours' walking I arrived there.
Braha is a large village situated among the hills which can be seen from the As far as I could make out, Manje rest house; the village is off the main route. there were three distinct communities, a Wongara settlement, a Gaman settle- ment, and a foreign settlement, of which no one could interpret their language for me.
On my arrival in the village the majority of the adult population ran away into the bush, and in consequence I had great difficulty in gaining informa- tion. I saw the Chief of the Wongara settlement. He was an old man, and when I informed him I was an animal doctor (veterinary surgeon), and that I had come to look at the cattle of the village, he become non-communicative, and referred me to the Gaman settlement.
However, at the back of his house there was a cattle stockade, in which I counted 107 animals, including calves. The herd was in charge of a Fulani herds- man, who became my chief informant, guide, and interpreter while I was in the village. He conducted me to another stockade, which was cranimed full of cattle; I counted over 200, but was unable to count the remainder, as the herd became restive. I was taken to another stockade, but only got there in time to see the animals being driven off into the bush. My Fulani informant, in the way of con- versation, informed me that there were over 400 cattle in the Wongara settlement, and some in the Gaman and Bombala settlements (this was the name he used to describe the foreign settlement alluded to above, but I am unable to place the tribe or the district from whence they came). I visited the Gaman and Bom- bala settlements; there were numerous cattle stockades, but they were all empty. All the cattle seen were said to be Gaman cattle: they are of the unhumped breed. have ever seen; there was The cattle in this village were in size the smallest that not a single castrated animal, the bulls, cows, heifers, and calves were all mixed up in the stockades. The different shapes of the head pointed to too much in-breed- ing, one cow, in particular, having a head very much like that of a bull-dog, i.e., it had a domed or convex forehead and with an indented face, with a protruding jaw. There were a large number of sheep bred; all were in a filthy condition.
Pig breeding was evidently gone in for on a large scale; some of the pigs seen, especially the boars, were fine animals. The surrounding country is excellent grazing country. The water-hole for the watering of animals was in the middle of the town. I noticed that the majority of the corn farms were fenced in so as to keep the cattle from damaging the farms. The conclusion that I came to regarding the village was as follows:-
'They were a rich community, little interested with the outside world, They were and that the majority of them had never seen a white man. content in sitting at home and breeding live stock, which was entrusted to
nature.'
On account of the situation of their village they had never suffered from the epidemic of bovine pleuro-pneumonia, which accounted for the number of cattle in the village. I intend on some future occasion to spend three or four days in the village, and endeavour to get the cattle-owners to consent to my castrating a few of the bulls
I left Braha and journeyed to Nomase. This village is situated on the Manje- Sikasiko road. Here there were a few sheep but no cattle. I left Nomase, and eventually arrived at Debibi, where I slept for the night. I inspected 50 head of cattle in the village. In the evening I interviewed the Chief of the village and the cattle-owners.
The Honourable
The Acting Principal Medical Officer,
Accra.
*
I have, &c.,
W. P. B. BEAL.
Veterinary Officer.
37
Enclosure 2 in No. 17.
MINUTE BY THE COMMISSIONER OF THE WESTERN Province of Ashanti (Mr. Fell).
(M.P.G. 78/12.)
ACTING CHIEF COMMISSIONER OF ASHANTI,
THERE is little for me to report upon. I am in entire agreement with the Governor's despatch of the 9th of March, 1914, with which the Director of the Tropical Diseases Bureau appears to have acquiesced in his letter of the 22nd April, 1914. Generally, the disease is so scarce per head of population, and the natives so little scared of it, that I do not consider any steps are required from the Administration at all, except to keep an eye on it and ascertain whether infection is on the increase or decrease. If it at any time any locality became epidemic or very prevalent we should quickly hear of it, and the natives would then quickly carry out any prophylactic measures we wished. From its history in this province such an eventuality at present seems hardly possible.
Generally, to maintain an effective clearing is impossible in most villages, and even if an effective clearing could be maintained, the population go daily to farms, water, etc., and must be bitten. At Sunyani, with our large, effective clearing, on which much expenditure has been incurred, the appearance of tsetses is by no means
rare.
Removal from the vicinity of fly is impossible, because fly is generally
distributed.
Segregation of infected persons is impossible, as pointed out by Drs. Wade and Kinghorn.
The natives without compulsion will not maintain clearings, as they can see no reason for our hustling them over a disease which attacks so few of them, and if such clearings are to be maintained, native overseers must be appointed to drive the people to make them, and to travel about seeing they are maintained-otherwise our object will not be achieved, and I do not believe repeated fines would lead to a village maintaining a clearing in any way adequate.
Clearing round water supplies may easily have an effect of diminishing the supply of water.
I do not agree with Dr. Wade's remarks as to widened roads being mor haunted by tsetses. I have not observed this to be the case, and have been informed by cattle traders that they can now use these roads in the hot weather at night, and that they largely do so.
It seems to me that wait and see, carrying on in the meantime a policy of masterly inactivity, is the only logical policy to be followed, in view of the small percentage of infection and the small death-rate, and the extreme unlikelihood of the disease assuming an epidemic form.
With reference to paragraph 2 of the Director of Tropical Diseases Bureau's letter of the 22nd April, the two largest zongos in the province Wenchi and With a Tekiman-are situated in more open country than almost all other towns. Commissioner now at Wenchi the environs of these zongos are more likely now to be kept clear of long grass and scrub.
I much regret the inability of the Secretary of State to appoint a travelling Medical Officer for the province, both on account of the increased difficulty of watching the progress of sleeping sickness without him, and on account of two European Commissioners at Wenchi and Goaso, whom he would have frequently Their only hope, in visited, being left without any medical attendance at all. case of sickness. is the Medical Officer at Sunyani, and should he or any one else at Sunyani be ill, there would be no possibility of medical attendance reaching either of these officers for a considerable time.
T. E. FELL, Commissioner, Western Province, Ashanti.
16th July. 1914.