PUBLIC RECORD OFFICE
Reference:
mmmmimC.O.885/25
PUBLIC RECORD OFFICE, LONDON
ALLY WITHOUT PERMISSION OF THE BE REPRODUCED PHOTOGRAPHIC- COPYRIGHT PHOTOGRAPH-NOT TO
59547
SIR,
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No. 6.
COLONIAL OFFICE to TREASURY.
[Answered by No. 7.]
WITH reference to the Colonial Office to Treasury, 3rd April,
1914.
Downing Street, 28th December, 1916. correspondence noted in the margin,* I am directed by Mr. Secretary Long to request you to inform the Lords Commissioners of the Treasury that his attention has been drawn to the question of the continuance of the various Diseases to the Tropical contributions Research Fund.
Treasury to Colonial Office, 13th May,
1914.
Colonial Office to Treasury, 1st June,
1914.
Treasury to Colonial Office, 26th June,
1914.
2. The present position may be stated follows-Certain Governments briefly as have agreed to continue their contributions for a period of five years, beginning with 1914 (or in some cases 1914-15); these contributions amount in all to £2,025 a year. Certain other Governments which have not pledged themselves to contribute for the whole period of five years will apparently do so; these con- tributions amount to £220 a year. The Government of India has consented to continue its contribution of £500 for the same period on condition that the con- tributions of the Treasury and the Crown Colonies are maintained at rates not less than those hitherto received.
3. The question of the maintenance of the Fund at its present level, there fore, hinges on the Treasury contribution of £1,000 a year, as any reduction in the amount of that contribution would involve at least a proportionate reduction in that of the Indian Government; and, having regard to the stringency produced in the finances of many of the Colonial Governments owing to the exceptional con- ditions of the present time and the uncertainty of the outlook, it would not be possible to ask these Governments to increase their subventions, which, as their lordships are aware, were in some cases increased, or paid for the first time, immediately prior to the outbreak of the War.
4. The financial position of the Fund is satisfactory, however, and, in the Secretary of State's opinion, it is possible to effect a temporary reduction in the outgoings of the Fund. In point of fact, the grants made from the Fund in respect of the current year have been reduced, in view of the narrowness of the margin between the income and the expenditure to the Fund and the doubt as to whether some of the Colonial Governments would not be compelled to ask to be relieved These reductions are of the obligation into which they had entered in this matter. as follows:-
Grant to the London School of Tropical Medicine Grant to the Liverpool School of Tropical Medicine Grant to the University of London Grant to the Quick Laboratory, Cambridge
Reduced from
£1,200 1,200
to £1,000
1,000
850
450
700 290
£3,700
£2,990
5. The death of the late Professor of Protozoology in the University of London and the acceptance by the Army authorities of the services of his assistant have led to a cessation of the work of that department, and it is understood that the Univer- sity authorities do not propose to make any claim on the grant conditionally allocated to them for 1916. On the other hand, negotiations have been set on foot between the University authorities and governing bodies of the London School of Tropical Medicine and the Lister Institute of Preventive Medicine which may result, within the next year or so, in a definite scheme for the re-establishment of the department, or for its replacement by the similar department of the Tropical Medicine School, expanded and developed, in which case it might be judged expedient to make a contribution, representing part, at any rate, of the grant of £700 conditionally assigned to the University of London.
* Nos. 22, 90, 41, and 45 in Miscellaneous No. 901.
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6. Apart from this possibility, however, it is estimated that, owing to the reductions in the grants and the suspension of the University of London Depart- ment of Protozoology, and to other savings, there will, on the 31st of March next, be a balance of £2,300 to the credit of the Fund; and, in these circumstances, the Secretary of State does not think it necessary to ask their lordships to invite Parliament to contribute more than £500 a year for the next two years. This will entail a reduction of fifty per cent in the grant from the Government of India; and the Colonial Administrations that are contributors to the Fund must, in the Secretary of State's judgment, also be relieved of the payment of one-half of the sums promised. The situation would be reviewed again towards the end of 1918. 7. I am to add that, if it were not that the surplus at the disposal of the Fund at the end of 1916-17 is expected to equal nearly the total of the grants which (on the 1916 basis) should be made from the Fund in 1917, the Secretary of State would not have felt justified in asking their lordships for a contribution so considerably reduced from the existing figure. The financial position of the two Schools of Tropical Medicine towards certain chairs in which nearly nine-tenths of the grants from the Fund are allotted has been seriously affected by the War.
The number
of students has been reduced to a very low level, and the consequent falling off in fees, which constitute an important item in the income of the Schools, considerably exceeds the resulting savings in working expenses and maintenance. On the other hand, the Secretary of State would view with the greatest apprehension any decline in the efficiency of the Schools of Tropical Medicine. The fruits of their work were abundantly evident in connexion with the successful campaigns in Togoland and the Cameroons. As their lordships are aware, the losses incurred in former campaigns in West Africa through tropical disease have been appalling; and the fact that comparatively small British-led forces were able to keep the field in the Cameroons for so long and to do such excellent work was undoubtedly due very largely to the circumstance that the West African Governments were able to attach to the troops a comparatively large number of medical officers who had all received a thorough training at one or other of these Schools. The short campaign in Togoland was, indeed, carried out almost entirely without casualties from tropical disease. In addition to this, a considerable number of medical officers so trained have been lent by the Governments of the East and West African Dependencies for service in the campaign against German East Africa. The teaching and research staffs of the two Schools have not only, in many instances, served personally with His Majesty's forces, but have made important contributions to the solution of problems which threatened seriously to obstruct the conduct of the War in, e.g., Egypt, where Professor (temporary Lieutenant-Colonel) Leiper's researches into the causation of bilharzia have constituted, not only a brilliant scientific discovery, but one of immediate practical benefit to the military authorities. Owing, more- over, to the presence at the Auxiliary Military Hospital attached to, and adminis- tered by, the Liverpool School, of a large number of military patients suffering from dysentery, extensive researches into this disease have been carried out by the staff of the School, entailing the engagement of special assistants and a large additional expenditure.
8. There is a further side to this question which should not be overlooked, viz., the situation that will ensue on the declaration of peace. The depletion of the medical services of the tropical dependencies, due to the wastage of war and the diversion to other quarters of the normal supply of candidates, will require to be made good, and for several years the resources of the Schools of Tropical Medicine will be taxed to the utmost by this demand alone. It is also possible, without anti- cipating the final terms of settlement, to take into account the probability that the British Empire may be called upon to assume larger responsibilities in Tropical Africa; and problems of the gravest character in the cause, prevention, and cure of tropical diseases are awaiting solution in the territory already administered by this country. In the investigation of such baffling questions as the cause of yellow fever, or the restriction and elimination of sleeping sickness and plague, the Schools of Tropical Medicine and the appropriate Faculties of the Universities of London and Cambridge will be called upon to play an important part; and their capacity to do so will be greatly enhanced if it is not found necessary, immediately after the cessation of hostilities, to devote valuable time and energy to making good deficiencies produced by a period of unduly restricted income.
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