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3. The Director understands that the incidence of human trypanosomiasis in the Gold Coast is at present so small as to be practically negligible, but that there appear to be heavy losses from this disease among cattle that are continually being driven towards the coast from the inland districts. He suggests, therefore, that it might be desirable for a preliminary inquiry to be made now into the exact nature of these losses, and information obtained as to which fly-areas are mainly responsible for them, with a view to future action to avoid, or at any rate minimise, them.
4. In this connexion I would refer to my predecessor's Miscellaneous despatch of the 20th of December, 1921* on the subject of tsetse-fly investigations in Africa. Mr. Churchill stated in that despatch that he would give most careful consideration to any proposals for investigations of this nature which your Government might be able to submit, and I may say that I am equally desirous of encouraging such investigations. Further, I may observe that at a recent meeting of the Managing Committee of the Imperial Bureau of Entomology, it was suggested that the time had come when the Government of the Gold Coast might be invited to set on foot an investigation, possibly on the lines of that now being conducted in Nigeria. The suggestion, which the Director has now made after discussion with Dr. Macfie will, I feel sure, commend itself to the Committee, and I trust that your Government will be prepared to consider it favourably. In the event of it being decided to conduct the inquiry proposed, the Director would be glad to assist in any way possible and to advise, so far as circumstances permit, on any points which it may be desired to refer to him. In so doing he would, of course, take advantage of the presence in this country of Dr. Macfie or other officers from the Gold Coast to discuss matters with them.
5. The provision of funds would rest with your Government, but in view of the improved financial position of the Colony, I presume that they would now be As able to find the necessary sum to meet the cost of personnel, equipment, etc. vou are aware, it was suggested in the Acting Governor's despatch, No. 685 of the 27th of July, 1920,† that £2,000 per annum might be devoted by the Government of the Gold Coast towards the general scheme of tsetse-fly investigations which was then under consideration, but, which, for the reasons explained in my predecessor's Miscellaneous despatch of the 20th of December, 1921, is for the present in abeyance; and I trust that, if necessary for the proper conduct of the inquiry now suggested, funds to that extent could be made available.
I have, &c.,
7116
No. 48.
DEVONSHIRE.
PROGRAMME FOR TSETSE WORK IN TANGANYIKA TERRITORY. MEMORANDUM BY MR. SWYNNERTON.
of the
THIS suggestion of my programme should be prefaced by a statement
General Policy
that we ought, I consider, to adopt if it is anywhere yet practicable, and steadily work up to where it is not, and to which all other measures would be merely auxiliary. It may be said:
(a) That our tsetses of the morsitans group will, eventually, probably be exter minated by the natural increase of the population and the cattle, and that this process, in some localities, is already taking place; but that
(b) it is taking place, and, if it remains unorganized, will continue to take place only slowly and with endless setbacks, delays and losses that might be averted. The reverse process-invasion, here and there, of our cattle areas by tsetse-is taking place also.
In every case that I know myself or have definite details of, the invasion is due to the fact that native settlement has become thinned locally in the margins of a cattle area, or the numbers of the cattle, which ate back the growth from the stumps in the ground, have (through loss from various causes) become reduced below their effective bush controlling minimum, so that young wooding is allowed to spring
No. 113 in Miscellaneous No. 321. ‡ No. 88.
* No. 88.
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·
up and the fly spreads into it. To give one example out of many: "Twenty years ago Urambo area was open grass country carrying huge numbers of stock; to-day it is one tsetse-infested bush." (Stiebel.)
In other portions of the areas, the margins of which are thus invaded, over- stocking by cattle is sometimes present (a) in relation to unusually dry seasons, (b) in relation to the average season; and there can be little doubt that thousands die (a) as the result of starvation, and as the result (b) of the increased mortality, from diseases generally, that accompanies poor condition and drought, and (c) from the risks then taken by cattle owners in relation to tsetse infested pasture in an endeavour to avoid heavy loss by starvation. Obviously, the right measure (and I think it could gradually, with trouble and initial inducement to the natives, be organized), is to remedy both evils at one stroke by pushing population and cattle out of the congested areas into the margin of the fly, so as to reinforce the population (and cattle) at any point that is threatened with invasion and, by actively encouraging also the clearing and stocking of the margin of the fly, to conquer grazing from the latter pari passu with the increase in the area's stock. As I wrote recently on the subject of invasions by tsetse: "The reinforcements are already waiting a mere dozen or twenty miles away, but through' lack of any organization ad hoc they remain unused.”
The policy will concern chiefly people who already fully know the advantages of cattle-keeping, so that, with tactful handling and once they understand the scheme we should be assured of their keen co-operation even if it comes sometimes to localized measures of hand clearing. If it should be possible, further, as opportunity occurred, to encourage the coalescing of villages within the fly into large locations, these. gradually expanding and farming cattle, could be made the centres for further attack on the fly, from inside its belts.
Further, so far as possible. Government agricultural undertakings or encourage- ment to agriculture should be located in the margins of fly areas or along roads which it is wished to free of the fly.
2. A Comprehensive Experiment..
The above policy, working well, should provide grazing as fast as we could stock it, but it also entails the keeping of the margins of the cattle area well stocked, so that in a bad season some loss might occur there also. though the extra grazing needed would be close at hand and, proper watchfulness and organization as regards the fly-margins being the policy, could be secured by an emergency clearing measure which the natives themselves would be induced to carry out. But, in view of this last limitation and for other reasons, it would be most useful to be able to reclaim sometimes a whole block at a time from the tsetse; a block which, if it could not be stocked fully at once, would offer the cattle that would be placed on it the best conditions for successful increase, namely, unstinted grazing.
With regard to the method of reclaiming such a block, I am convinced we can now learn most about the control of the fly by taking in hand a large experiment in the shape of a definite fly-belt of limited extent and attempting to free it of tsetse. There would be two stages in such an experiment. First, several small belts might have to be examined before we found one which offered, at this moment, the favourable conditions required as regards (a) the native population which it might be wished to direct to it, (b) cost: secondly, the experiment would be carefully planned on the spot in detail and carried out.
The Belt would be examined at the height of the dry season, when much of it will probably have been evacuated by the flv, in order to ascertain the type of locality in which the tsetse can there survive the dry season conditions its "primary centres." (Shircore.) The resources in the way of natives and stock that could. without excessive cost in the way of inducement, be diverted to the belt from the more congested parts of the neighbouring settled areas, and the possibilities of the economic development of the belt, would, as I have shown, have been studied already and boon found to be sufficient.
We would then begin to place our native settlers. in sufficient numbers to ensure early clearing, at the primary centres of the whole belt, or of a suitable section of it. If goats were available in large numbers. they would he farmed with advantage, in relation to their capacity for grazing down the smaller bush and their greater resistance to trypanosome infection, until it was safe to farm cattle. And. in general, our plans, previously formulated, for the full development of the aren would be put into operation. At the same time, every measure which promised to