Reference -
885/26
PUBLIC RECORD OFFICE, LONDON
ALLY WITHOUT PERMISSION OF THE BE REPRODUCED PHOTOGRAPHIC-
COPYRIGHT PHOTOGRAPH-NOT TO
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15 December, 1919.]
COLONIAL MEDICAL SERVICES COMMITTEE.
DR. A. D. P. HODGES, C.M.G.
965. Have the Medical Officers got free quarters?
--Yes,
966. Can they take their wives out there with comfort ?-Well, yes, some stations; not all stations; some of the up-country stations are not fit for a white woman.
967. To most of the stations a Medical Officer could take his wife P-To most of them."
968. Could children do very well, young children! --Well, that is rather a difficult question. The opinion I have formed all the years I was out there is, that in the better stations young children did very woll up to three or four years.
969. Up to three or four years of age?-After that they did not.
970. They required to be sent homme ?—Yes.
971. Do you not think it would be a good thing if the Medical Services of the East African Colonies were amalgamated P-I do; that is, if they were all amalgamated.
972. If they were all amalgamated together P-Yes. 973. Under one Medical Officer, one Director- General out there, or Principal Medical Officer?— Yes. Personally, as far as I have thought about it, I think that thero should be a Director in each Colony.
974. There would have to be a chief man, whatever you might call him P-There would have to be a chief man of that statra, whatever you call him, for the respective Colonies.
975. But the control of the whole medical adminis- tration in one man, with local heads, in each Colony? -Yes, I think that would be a very good thing.
976. With promotion from one Colony to another? --Yea.
977. How many grades of Medical Officer would you recommend, so as to ensure promotion at reason- able intervala P-Well, I think that it would be a good thing to assimiliste it as far as possible to the West African grading.
978. The West African Medical Staff P-Yes. 979. You are familiar with that?-I am not actu- ally familiar with it.
980. You know what the grades are?-Yes, I know what the grades are. I think something of the same kind would be of great benefit to the East African Service.
981. Do you think the organisation might be carried a little further, and have one Medical Service for the whole of tropical Africa ?—I think that should be the object, but I rather think that it would better to amalgamate the Eastern Service first as a step towards that.
982. As a step towards complate amalgamation?— Yes.
988. Did you meet any of the West African men in East Africa when you were there?-I have never had a talk with one; I did meet one for a fow minutos crossing a lake once.
984. Do you think medical men in East Africa would object to being amalgamated with the Service of West Africa, and be liable to transfer to Weat Africa-No, I do not think they would.
985. You do not think there is a prejudice against the Service in West Africa?—No; I think there was at one time, but I think that has died out with the improvement of the conditions of the Service.
986. The pay in West Africa is better, and the loave conditions more liberal, are they not?—Yes.
987. Do you think the leave conditions in East Africa are liberal enough to ensure a man keeping his health P-Yes, I think so. There are people who would not agree with me; some medical men, I know would not, but personally, I think, the con- ditions are sufficient in East Africa.
988. Is Uganda as healthy as British East Africa? Do not think only of the Highlands; take the whole Colony? I think if you take the whole Colony, one place with another, it is. It is healthy in a Way, but it is more enervating, and nowhere free from malaria.
[Com'inued.
989. Uganda is more enervating?—If you take the whole country, of course. You can get no place lik the Highlands of East Africa where you can get rest and change; the necessary change that will keep a man a good number of years out there.
990. Uganda is fairly elevated P-It is elevated, but it is not a cool climate.
991. Have you no hill stations at all in Uganda P No; there is no plateau big enough.
992. Are you familiar with the statistics of health of the European population in Uganda and British East Africa? Do you know how they compare one with the other?—I am afraid I do not.
993. The rate of invaliding; the death rate?—I am afraid I do not. I used to have the figures, more or less, but I am afraid I have forgotten.
994. Do you consider the type of Medical Officer you had in Uganda satisfactory?—Yes, quite.
995. Can the Government get enough recruits now? That I do not know, Sir.
996. When you were out there, were all posts filled?I think so. There were vacancies during the war, but there was no difficulty before the war. 997. Have you ever thought that it might be pos sible to form a general Colonial Medical Service of all the tropical Colonies P-I certainly think that that is an object to be aimed at. I know there are difficulties; different conditions in different Colonies. 998. You would do it gradually; not all at once?— Well, that is the idea that I have. I think that the differences that have to be got over would be got over by combining the East African Bervice, as you would realise very soon the essential difficulties in combining with West Africa, and from that you would consider the amalgamation of the whole lot. Unless the amalgamation were under even conditions, it would not be any very great improvement, so far sa the content of the men is concerned,
999. You know the Secretary of State has an Advisory Board consisting largely of medical men ?- Yes.
-1000. Do you think that Board is of use? So far na my experience goes, I think it is a very great deal of use.
1001. Do you think a Director-General at home would be better upon that Board, or would it be a good thing to have a Director-General at home in addition to the Board?-Responsible directly to whom P
1002. Well, to advise the Secretary of State as regards appointments and promotion and so on in the Medical Service of the Colony?—I would sooner he had a Council or a Committee of some sort and I should say, properly organised, it would be a very excellent thing indeed.
1003. You do not think it would interfere with the work of the Governor; entrench at all on the authority of the different Governments ?--I do not think it need. It all depends on how it is organised, under what conditions the Inspector-General would work.
1004. If you had such an officer, from what source would you appoint him; would you take the Medical Officer from one of the Colonies, or would you take a man from the higher ranks of the profession at home? I should certainly take a man with colonial experience.
1005. Sir James Fowler: Which are the stations where there is private practice in Uganda?-I think that Kampala, Jinga and Mbale are the chief ones.
1006. Can you give me a rough idea as to what it was worth P-I could not tell you, but I think it is perhaps £400 a year, the best one, £300 or £400
a yenr. Of course, that is a thing that is increasing.
As the Colony grows the medical practice would grow. 1007. Have you seen children born there and living there up to 3 or 4 years of ageP-Oh, yes.
1008. They did well, you think, up to that time?— Yes.
1009. Where were they?—At Entebbe and Kan pals.
15 December, 1919.]
MINUTES OF EVIDENCE:
DR. A. D. P. HODGES, C.M.G.
1010. They were not anaemic or badly developed ?→→ No; of course, they have to be taken great care of; they have to have constant protection from the mosquitoes and the aun and that sort of thing; then they do very well. After the third or fourth year, I think the tendency is over-development-over- stimulation.
1011. Chairman: Had you any prison warders out there, any white prison officials?-Yes, wo had; they were very few; I do not know whether there were any warders. There were one or two white jailors or assistant jailors.
1012. Had they any children?--I do not think so; I do not remember.
Chairman: Why I ask you is because in Singapore there is a very large prison with a large number of prison warders; they all had a number of children and they used to run wild in the jail, without hats on and everything; they kept very healthy, wonderfully well.
1018. Sir Humphry_Rolleston: About the diacon- tent before the war, I suppose £400, as a starting pay, was really quite good P-Yos, quite good.
1014. Since then I suppose there has been a feeling of discontent because the £400 represents so much less? That is so, I think.
1015. Is there any remedy that you would be inclined to suggest to meet the stagnation in that promotion P-Well, I am not sure, from what I have heard, that something has not been done in that way, that the salary has been raised, I am not ablo to say of my own knowledge, but I think I have heard that salaries have been raised a certain per- centage all round since I left.
1018. Do you suggest raising the salaries, so to speak, automatically; if a man has served so many years he should have an increment according to his service, though the promotion does not happen to come along?--Yes, I should. I believe they are appointed at £400 rising to £500 now, or were when I left, but the increment does not begin, or did not begin, for four years. They served four years at £400 and then I think they rose by £20 a year.
1017. Do you think the position as to pension is aatisfactory-Well, the salary and the pension go together. I know my pension is not enough in the altered circumstances; it is not anything like what one expected it would be, and I do not see how anyone can think it satisfactory if it is at the same rate. A Medical Officor pensioned on the salary of £500 a year after ten years service would got very little value for his money nowadays.
1018. Do you think this handicaps the Colonial Medical Service? I think the pension that they may expect now will probably have a very great deal to do with getting men. They will be sure to consider that. The pension was one of the considerations, of course, of the Colonial Service. Men I know have given up practices, fairly good practices, to go into the Colonial Medical Service. One of the chief reasons was that, after serving so many years they would be getting a pension; they were putting by something all the time.
1019. Would they get a pension after seven years? Ten years if they are invalided.
1020. Mr. Fiddian: I gather the Uganda Service was a small Servico; do you remember how many officers there were ?-I think it was 27, but I am not quite sure.
1021. And Senior Medical Officers ?-Two Senior Medical Officers.
1022. No Deputy; one Principal Medical Officer? A Deputy. I think there were either 27 or 28 altogether, including the whole organisation. There were two or three extra Medical Officers that were added for venereal diseases.
1023, The salary of the Medical Officer in Uganda is now £400, rising by annual increments of £20 to £500 a year, with a duty allowance of £40 a year; after six years' service, £525, rising by annual incre- ments of £25 to £600 a year, with duty allowance of
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[Continued.
£60 a year. That is a great improvement, is it not? -Yes. They had no duty allowance before and they only rose to £500.
1024. To a certain extent that would compensate for the slowness of promotion P--Yes.
1025. You said that the Uganda and East African Bervices had been amalgamated ?-Yes, they were actually amalgamated.
1026. There was still a Principal Medical Officer in each Protectorate-No, not all the time; I think it was from 1903 to 1906 that there was only one. for both.
1027. Then it was impossible to say, I suppose, how the rapidity of promotion was affected by it?- No; both the Services were very small then compared with what they are now.
1028. You spoke of amalgamating the East African Services, that is to say, Uganda, Nyasaland, Somali- land and Zanzibar Protectorates, and, I suppose, German East Africa?-Yes.
1029. And you thought a Director would be noces. sary. You know in West Africa there is no Director- General or Inspector-General P-I said I thought a Director would be a good thing.
1030. Chairman: You meant a Director living in East Africa, then ?--Yes, I mean some Head of the amalgamated Services, whatever he might be called. 1031. Mr. Fiddian: You think it would be desir. able P--Yes.
1092. It seems to me, looking at this, with the possible exception of interchange on promotion, you are amalgamated to very much the same extent as the West African Medical Service is amalgamated? -Yes, perhaps, but I am not familiar with that.
1033. Do you think it would be easy for the Director-General to manage all those places; it re- quires a very great deal of travelling, does it not?-- Yes, it does.
1034. And it would be difficult for a Director to combine the East African Protectorate and Uganda and Nyasaland and Somaliland and the Zanzibar Protectorates? Well, the K.A.R. have one Inspector for the whole of the Protectorates.
1095. An Inspector? It is not quite the same as a Director, of course.
1096. I rather think the K.A.R., at any rate, be fore the War, was more or less concentrated in Uganda and East Africa P-And Nyasaland.
1037. There were not very many there before the War?-Oh! I think a good many.
1038. You thought it would be a good thing, 1 gather, to have a Director-General at home, only that he should have an Advisory Council with him?-I assume he would have an Advisory Council.
1039. Do you not think it would be difficult to find from the Colonia) Medical Service a Director-General
of sufficiently wide knowledge of the Colonies to fill the post satisfactorily? Woll, I am not acquainted personally with the whole Colonial Service, but I should not have thought there ought to be any im possibility about it.
1040. As things are at present, if you took a man from West Africa, he would have no knowledge of any part of the world but West Afrion, the Servico being a closed one?—Yes.
1041. The East African Service is a closed one? Yes.
1042. A man chosen from East Africa would not know West Africa or any other part of the Colonial Service; it might be a question of some difficulty?— He would not, but he would have & good deal of knowledge which would be useful, that a man who had never been to Africa or to the Colonies would take some time, I think, to acquire.
1048. You do not see any reason, for instance, for people, any, in Jamaica, complaining that the Director-General had dealt with Jamaican appoint- ments from a point of view of tropical Africa ex- clusively? But wore we not speaking of Africa entirely?
1044. I was thinking of the Director-General of the whole Colonial Service?-I do not think we got so far as that; I thought it was only for Africa.
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