PUBLIC RECORD OFFICE
Reference :--
EPELEI C.O. 885
PUBLIC RECORD OFFICE, LONDON
ALLY WITHOUT PERMISSION OF THE BE REPRODUCED PHOTOGRAPHIC- COPYRIGHT PHOTOGRAPH—NOT TO
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Superintendent and tutor of the school shortly after its establishment. He has been in the British Guiana Medical Service since the 21st December, 1892, and, after completing six years' service in that. Colony, was selected by Mr. Chamberlain to be a member of the Royal Society's Malaria Commission, and, on the com- pletion of that mission, with the consent of the Colonial Government, he was appointed to his prescit post at the school. On the 15th of January next or the end of February, if he is' allowed to take certain vacation leave to which he has a claim, the period for which the British Guiana Government lent his services will expire. The teaching staff of the school unhesitatingly assert that its present success is in great measure lue to the admirable manner in which the duties of superintendent and tutor of the school have been conducted by Dr. Daniels, and they feel that, at this critical period of the existence of the school, the loss of his services would be most prejudical to its interests and to the cause of special education in tropical medicine in general. Dr. Daniels' British Guiana salary is now about £600 a year, rising to a maximum of £900 a year; but he is willing to leave the Colonial Ser- vice, and remain at the school, provided that a pension, calculated on his present service in British Guiana, is secured to him as some sort of provision against eventualities, As the school is not a Government institution, and he has no guarantee that his appointment there will be a permanent one, this is only natural. The amount of the pension calculareil on his present service is only £115 a year, und a considerable economy would be effected by the British Guiami Government if they replaced him by a man on the new scale of salary laid down for officers of his class; but the Combined' Court are unable or unwilling to overcome the legal difficulties in the way of giving him the pension at once. As a partial solution of the difficulty, the Officer Administering the Government has suggested that a resolution should be put before the Combined Court, authorising the Government, in view of Dr. Daniels' distinguished services to medical science, to award to him such a pension, to be drawn when he attains the legal age of retire- ment-or sooner--in case of infirmity, as his services to the Colony, up to the present date, would have earned for him.
The suggestion has been approved, but it remains to be seen whether the Combined Court will pass the resolution. If it does, matters will be somewhat simplified, for the following reasons. A research laboratory-has been started at Kuala Lumpur, in the Felerated Malay States, and provision has been made for a director and two assistants to take charge of it.
The present director's engagement comes to au end next February, and it is proposed that.
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Dr. Daniels should take his place for a short period of about 29 years, this being considered the maximum period for which he could be absent from the school without losing touch with it. Dr. Low, to whom I have referred above, would replace Dr. Daniels here. This arrangement would probably benefit both in- stitutions. Dr. Daniels would introduce the excellent organisation of the London School into the Kink Lumpur Laboratory, and would at the same time obtain, increased facilities for the investigation of tropical disense, on his own account. On the other hand, Dr. Low, who has been investigating certain special diseases, such as filariasis and the sleeping sickness, in their own particular localities in the West IndiesTM and Uganda, will return to the school with the latest information on these subjects, and will be able to supply the students there with fresh starting points for research. At the same time he will be able to make himself acquainted with what has been done, daring his absence, in other lines of research than his own. Dr. Daniels would receive from the finds of the Federated Malay States for the period of his employment at the Kuala Lumpur laboratory salary at the rate of £800 a year (with free first class passages and free furnished quarters), so that he would be provided for for the next three years, Dr. Daniels' present age is 40, his British Guiana pension *, calculated on his present service would be £113
a year; so that it the Combined Court pass resolution, we should only have to secure £115 a year for him from other sources for a periód not exceeding 12 years, ¿e., the perioil of 15 years which must elapse before he attains the age of 55, less the period of three years during which he would be employed at Kuala Lumpur.
Lecturers.
the
At present there is a staff of nine lecturers who are remunerated out of any balance which may
be left from the tuition &c. fees, after deducting the working expenses of the school. As the total net balance for the period from the first opening of the school to the 31st December, 1901, was only about £63, it is clear that the remuneration of the lecturers is practically nil at present.
It is very desirable that there should be sufficient endowment to enable the school to be always sure of obtaining the best
men for its lectureships, but I fear that this is a matter which will have to wait until the more pressing matters mentioned above have been disposed of.
The school cannot, however, be considered to have been put on a thoroughly satisfactory basis until this endowment has been provided, and the matter ought to be continually kept in view.
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