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No. 85.
MINUTES OF THE TWENTY-EIGHTH GENERAL MEETING OF THE MANAGING COMMITTEE OF THE IMPERIAL BUREAU OF ENTO- MOLOGY, Held at the Colonial OfficE ON THE 20TH NOVEMBER, 1918.
Present:
VISCOUNT HARCOURT (Chairman).
COLONEL ALCOCK.
DR. BAGSHAwe.
MR. FRYER.
DR. HARMER.
SIR JOHN MCCALL.
DR. MACDOUGALL. SIR DANIEL MORBIS. PROFESSOR Newstead. PROFESSOR POULTON. SIR DAVID PRAIN.
SIR HERBERT READ. MR. WARBURTON. DR. MARSHALL. DR. NEAVE.
THE minutes of the Twenty-seventh Meeting* were confirmed.
The Half-yearly Report† of the Director was received. In commenting upon it Dr. Marshall explained the circumstances under which considerable delay had arisen in arranging the suggested investigations in conjunction with the Board of Agriculture owing to the uncertainty as to whether Mr. Muir could take up the work. As he had been unable to do so and it had not been possible to obtain anyone suitable in his place, Dr. Marshall suggested that, in view of the changed The Chairman, however, circumstances, it might be better to drop the scheme.
pointed out that food problems were still urgent and likely to remain so for some time, and that it was possibly still advisable to carry out the scheme on the lines originally drawn up. The Director was therefore asked to make further inquiries as to a suitable man for the purpose, the matter being left in the hands of the Selection Sub-Committee.
In dealing with other points arising out of his report, Dr. Marshall called attention to the fact that the Bureau had now invested a portion of its reserve funds in War Bonds, and explained that the delay in publishing the Bulletin was due to difficulties in connexion with the supply of paper.
The Committee discussed the question of the Carnegie Fund, and it was decided As the contribu- not to select any candidates for scholarships at the present time. tions for 1917 and 1918 had not yet been received the Chairman offered to com- municate with the Trustees.
Dr. Harmer commented on the minutes of the Twenty-second Meeting of the Finance Sub-Committee, and explained the grounds on which a war bonus on In connexion the Civil Service scale had been granted to the staff of the Bureau.
with these minutes Dr. Marshall read 'a memorandum from Professor Lefroy on the subject of the two Australian problems there mentioned: (a) the discovery of insect enemies of St. John's wort, (b) some means of dealing with the blow-fly pest. In respect of the first question the Chairman and other members expressed considerable doubt as to whether there was any important insect enemy of this plant in the British Isles. The risk of importing any phytophagous insect into After some discussion as to the amount that Australia was also pointed out.
should be paid to Mr. Smith, who had undertaken the investigation on the recom- mendation of Professor Lefroy, it was decided to refer the matter back to Professor Lefroy, and to inform him that the Bureau would be willing to contribute up to £50 for Mr. Smith's expenses and time spent on the investigation during a period of one year.
No further decision could be arrived at as regards the blow-fly problem until a reply had been received from the Advisory Committee in Australia, but the Committee expressed their readiness to undertake any such investigations that might be thought useful.
* No. 89.
† Annexure to these minutes.
+ No. 84.
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As regards the question of Imperial contributions to the funds of the Bureau, the only reply yet received was from the Imperial Treasury, who had expressed their willingness to continue the annual payment of £500 for another three years. Sir Herbert Read expressed the opinion that the contributions from the various parts of the Empire would be forthcoming. It was thought that Ceylon, Egypt, and possibly Malta, might be asked to make somewhat larger payments than had been the case in the past.
In discussing the Review of Applied Entomology the Chairman hoped that the arrears in the German abstracts that had arisen owing to the War might be made up, and thought that it would be advisable to ask the assistance of the Foreign Office to obtain the necessary publications after the conclusion of peace.
In
The Committee further expressed the hope that the investigations carried out by the Bureau, especially those in Tropical Africa in connexion with sleeping sickness, would be reinstituted as soon as it became practicable to do so. this connexion it was suggested by Professor Poulton and other members of the Committee that the Royal Society should be approached as to the publication by the Bureau of Dr. Carpenter's report, which had been sent in four years ago, and also of Mr. Fiske's as soon as it was received.
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Annexure.
HALF-YEARLY REPORT OF THE DIRECTOR OF THE IMPERIAL BUREAU OF ENTOMOLOGY. In accordance with the resolution passed at our last meeting, a request was submitted to the Board of Agriculture and Fisheries for facilities to carry out some research work with a view to devising improved methods for the practical The Board readily accorded their control of insect pests of staple food crops. consent, and left the arrangement of the details to Mr. J. C. F. Fryer. Mr. F. Muir, of Honolulu, a very competent and experienced entomologist, undertook to Unfortu- supervise the work, and a provisional programme was mapped out. nately, before it was possible for an actual start to be made, Mr. Muir received an urgent request to return, if possible, to his Experiment Station in Honolulu, and to this he felt obliged to accede. It appeared very dubious whether he would succeed in obtaining a passport for his wife, and, if not, he intended to remain and carry out the work. Matters were thus held up in a state of uncertainty for a considerable time; but eventually he left the country at the end of August. Since then it has not been possible to find a suitable man to take his place.
Finance.-In Appendix I. will be found the usual statement showing the Appendix II. sets forth actual receipts and expenditure during the half-year.
our present cash resources, with an estimate of our outstanding liabilities up to 31st March, 1919, showing a probable balance on that date of over £2,400.
Until recently our surplus funds have been placed out on deposit at call, but at the suggestion of the Colonial Office a sum of £2,500 has been invested in National War Bonds; this amount is principally made up of the balances of the Carnegie and Tropical African Funds. It will be observed that the liabilities in respect of our two publications are very beavy; this is owing to the fact that the Stationery Office accounts are very much in arrear, the bill paid last September only covering So far as can be the printing done up to the end of July in the previous year. ascertained, a part of the Review that cost us £20 in 1914 would now cost about £35. As it was found that the war bonuses paid by the Bureau were much below the usual rates, the Finance Sub-Committee agreed to raise them to the Civil Service scale as from the 1st July last, this involving an additional annual expenditure of £321.
The "Bulletin of Entomological Research."--In Appendix III. will be found a statement of the expenditure and receipts in respect of Volume VIII. of this periodical, but it must be noted that the charges for printing and paper are merely estimated. The size of the volume was eighty pages below the average, and the We are indebted to the following gentlemen deficit is about £80 lower than usual. for kindly supplying the drawings to illustrate their respective papers :-Captain J. Davidson, Dr. J. W. S. Macfie, Professor R, Newstead, Mr. H. Tetley, and Mr. F. V. Theobald.
The sales have been maintained satisfactorily and show a small increase, the net amount received from the publishers having been £93, as compared with £89
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