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Meeting as he understood it, had been not that he himself, but that Dr. Neave should represent the Bureau on this Committee. It was agreed that the Minutes should be amended accordingly.
(d) (Paragraph 9 of Minutes).—Mr. Parkinson explained that the question of the British representation on the Committee set up by the International Conference on Phytopathology and Economic Entomology had formed the subject of official correspondence between the Ministry of Agriculture and the Colonial Office. The views of all the Dominion Governments on the subject had been obtained, and there was general agreement that the Committee should be regarded not as an official body, but as an unofficial scientific body; hence the British representatives would not be appointed by His Majesty's Government. The Ministry of Agriculture would therefore invite scientific Associations which were interested in Phyto- pathology and Entomology to nominate the two British representatives. A suggestion made by the High Commissioner for New Zealand that similar Associations in the Dominions might be consulted in regard to at least one of the nominations had been communicated to the Ministry of Agriculture. In the circumstances, there was no further action for the Managing Committee of the Bureau to take in the matter.
(e) The Chairman remarked that the cost of illustrations for the Bulletin of Entomological Research, Vol. XIII, as shown in the Director's Report, had been somewhat high. The Director explained that the cost was quite exceptional, the unusual increase being due to the maps and illustrations for two important papers on tsetse flies.
The Minutes of the Thirty-Ninth General Meeting were then approved. 3. The Committee then considered the Report of the Director for the year ended 31st of March, 1924.*
(a) The Director explained that action was being taken with a view to obtaining a larger number of advertisements for the Review of Applied Entomology.
(b) On the proposal of Professor Poulton (seconded by Sir David Prain), it was agreed that the expenditure of approximately £100 on the re-organization of the offices at 41, Queen's Gate, should be approved.
(c) The Chairman enquired whether it had been brought to the notice of correspondents in the Dominions that the pamphlets in the Library of the Bureau were available for borrowing. The Director explained that the stock was not yet large enough to make it advisable to announce the fact generally.
(d) It was agreed at the suggestion of Sir Sidney Harmer that the question of increasing the insurance on the books in the Library should be taken up by the
Director.
(e) Dr. Marshall referred to the position of Mr. Altson who, as a result of the recommendation in paragraph 5 (4) of the Minutes of the last Meeting, had been appointed to the Staff of the Bureau with salary on the scale £250-£20-£290-£25- £450. Mr. Altson had submitted that before this arrangement came into effect he had already been engaged on work for the Bureau for a period of eighteen months, and had asked that he might be given increments accordingly in his scale of salary. After some discussion the Committee agreed that Mr. Altson should enter the scale at £270 a year, with the appropriate cost of living bonus, as from the 1st of April, 1924.
(f) Dr. Marshall mentioned in connexion with the work of Dr. Johnson and Dr. Lloyd in Nigeria that excellent results had been obtained with the drug Bayer 205 in dealing with trypanosomiasis.
(g) On the proposal of Sir David Prain, the Committee approved of the arrangement mentioned in the Report for the payment of £200 quarterly in advance to the Stationery Office on account of printing and goods supplied to the Bureau. 4. Dr Neave then gave a brief account of his visit to the Agricultural Conference in Jamaica in January, 1924. In accordance with the suggestion of Sir Arthur Shipley, he had, in addition to visiting Jamaica, also attended the laying of the foundation stone of the West Indian Agricultural College, Trinidad. making arrangements for his passages, etc., he had received very valuable assistance from Mr. Aspinall, the Secretary of the West India Committee.
In
During a call at Barbados he had seen Mr. Bovell, the Director of Agriculture, and had arranged with him for the supply of certain Barbados publications which
* Annexure.
would fill
189
in the Records of the Bureau. gaps
He had spent a fortnight in Trinidad, where Mr. Úrich had kindly made arrangements for him to see the work in progress there. He had also arranged for some exhibits in connexion with injurious insects to be sent home for the Empire Exhibition.
At the Conference in Jamaica he had read a paper on the work of the Bureau. He had been able to meet the Colonial Secretaries of Trinidad and Jamaica. and had been given to understand that the Bureau might look for continued support from the Governments of those Colonies.
5. The Committee considered the Memorandum* by the Glossina Sub- Committee on the tsetse fly investigations now being oarried on in Zululand. The Chairman moved that, in accordance with the recommendation of the Sub-Committee, the Committee should recommend to the Secretary of State that the Memorandum should be forwarded to the Governor-General of the Union of South Africa with a covering despatch urging the importance of work of this nature, mentioning the steps taken in other British African territories to pursue tsetse fly investigation, and also pointing out the desirability of the Sub-Committee being kept informed of any such investigations undertaken in the Union, The Committee agreed that this should be done.
6. It was agreed that a Sub-Committee should be constituted, composed of the members of the Committee residing in or near London, to make preliminary arrangements connexion with the Second Imperial Entomological Conference to be held in June, 1925, and that this Sub-Committee should have power to add to its number other members of the Committee.
7. Dr. Marshall stated that he had received an application from Mr. "Altson for temporary assistance in his work at Rothamsted during the summer months. Since then, on the day before the Meeting, he had learned that Mr. Altson had had a nervous breakdown and had been obliged to cease work for a time. This parasite work required continuous daily attention, so that Mr. Altson had been unable to get away for a holiday since he started it, and it was desirable that arrangements should be made for him to receive assistance during the summer when the pressure was greatest. He understood that it would be possible to train a boy or girl locally, at a cost of about 15 shillings a week, to do the work required.
•
The Committee agreed that the Director should be empowered to arrange for temporary assistance to Mr. Altson during the summer.
8. Dr. Marshall explained that the Government of the Tanganyika Territory had recently been anxious to purchase a handbook dealing with the more important pests of crops in Tropical Africa, but that no such publication was available. He proposed that the Bureau should take up the publication of such a work. Mr. F. Laing, the Economie Entomologist at the Natural History Museum, was willing to undertake the preparation of such a handbook in his spare time, and proofs would be sent before publication to the various Government Entomologists in Tropical Africa for their comments. He estimated that the cost would be somewhere in the neighbourhood of £250, which could be made available from the Tropical African Fund. Sir H. Read observed that such a work should find a considerable sale.
It was proposed by Professor Poulton and seconded by Sir Sidney Harmer that the Director's proposal should be approved, and that the steps to be taken to carry it out should be left in his hands for the present. The Committee agreed.
9. Mr. Parkinson explained that whilst Rhodesia was under the adminis- tration of the British South Africa Company there had been some misunderstanding as to the annual contribution of Southern Rhodesia, which had been reduced from £300 to £200. The matter was taken up by the Secretary of State with the new Government of Southern Rhodesia, which had now agreed to insert provision for a contribution of £300 in their Estimates for the years 1924-5 and 1925-6.
He also mentioned that the Government of Iraq had agreed to pay the Bureau the sum of Rs. 1,000 a year in return for the identification work which is done on their behalf by the Bureau.
[22249]
Annexure to No. 61.
REPORT OF THE DIRECTOR OF THE IMPERIAL BUREAU OF ENTOMOLOGY FOR THE YEAR ENDED 31ST MARCH, 1924.
THE work of the Bureau in connexion with the identification of insects has been well maintained during the past year, for although the actual number of
* No. 59.
!