452
PUBLIC RECORD OFFICE
Reference :-
TTIC.O.882/11
lumiini
PUBLIC RECORD OFFICE, LONDON
ALLY WITHOUT PERMISSION OF THE BE REPRODUCED PHOTOGRAPHIC COPYRIGHT PHOTOGRAPH—NOT TO
His Highness: No.
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His Excellency: Is this a matter on which you want expert advice or is sufficient local knowledge available? I am only making these suggestions because I am anxious that the islands may prosper.
His Highness: I will consult with my Ministers.
His Excellency: In regard to health matters, Sir Henry McCullum spoke to Your Highness about water supply and sanitation.
His Highness: Two tanks to collect water have been built but not yet used.
water.
His Excellency: Have any stand pipes been erected so that people can draw water? His Highness Not yet.
His Excellency: Your Highness will appreciate how important it is to have good I understand that there is much elephantiasis in one of the islands owing to bad water. It is very important to make use of tanks wherever possible so as to have a good water supply.
His Highness It is due to the lack of good doctors.
His Excellency: Cannot Your Highness get one or two?
His Highness The question of getting native doctors from India has been discussed.
Have you considered the His Excellency: That would be a very good thing. possibility of getting one or two lady doctors and a few trained midwives to attend to the women? If you encounter any difficulty write to me and I will see if we can be helpful. It is most important to have a Medical Officer of Health to look after the water supply and other matters of sanitation. I am told that there is a great deal of hookworm here. Does Your Highness know that it could be stamped out in a few months if the people used latrines? The other day in Ceylon, I saw a latrine which had been put up in two days at a cost of Re. 1 Cts. 30 which would last for 10 years. you wish for designs, I shall be happy to send them from Ceylon.
If
His Highness: I think it will be a very good idea and will do my best to see that they are built.
His Excellency If latrines are available people who do not use them should be punished. It is difficult at first to get people accustomed to them, but once they are used to them, the people will not go back to their old insanitary habits. The Govern- ment should not be disheartened if results are not immediately obvious. It is a matter which will take time. If no human excreta are left lying about, there will be no hookworm.
If you have a Medical Officer of Health, he will also advise on the reduction of the incidence of malaria.
His Highness: There is a lot of mosquitoes.
His Excellency: Their habits must be studied and some way of getting rid of them devised. This would also take time.
His Highness: Will it be possible to stop them. from breeding altogether?
His Excellency: It has been done with great success in Palestine, in the Federated Malay States, at the Panama Canal and in several places in Africa which I know. Unfortunately, we have not yet got rid of mosquitoes in Ceylon. It would be a very good thing if you would take an interest in this. I know Your Highness has a kind heart and wishes your people to be happy and well, and this is one of the ways in which you could be most helpful to them.
His Highness: I have a great desire to see my people happy and wall and will do everything I can to make them so.
I
you. His Excellency: I thank Your Highness for this opportunity of talking with have spoken quite frankly as one friend to another. I do not wish to interfere with It resta with you your government but I wish to give such good advice as I can. whether you will take my advice. May I expect to hear to-morrow about the steamer? I will let Your His Highness: I do not think that there will be time to-morrow, Excellency know by letter.
His Excellency I am not asking Your Highness to tell me at once whether you will buy a steamer but only whether the matter is of sufficient interest to Your Highness to make further enquiries worth while. I have had much pleasure in bringing Your Highness a small present, which I trust you will accept. I know Your Highness is fond of music.
(Gramophone presented.)
It has been a great pleasure to meet you His Highness: Thank you very much. and I give you all my best wishes for yourself, your family, and your people.
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His Excellency: 1 understand that Your Highness would like me to see the Indian merchants. I shall be very glad to do so. Would Your Highness wish me to impress upon them that they must not interfere in the politics or administration of the islands?
His Highness: I shall be very glad if Your Excellency will do so. His Excellency: The Indian merchants are British subjects, and they must be But they must not be allowed to dominate the Govern- treated with perfect fairness.
and you ment. Your Highness is the Sultan of the Maldives, and it is for ters, not for the Indian merchants, to govern the islands.
C. 53458/28 [No. 8].
No. 2.
CEYLON.
THE SECRETARY OF STATE to THE GOVERNOR.
(Confidential.)
SIB,
your Minis-
Downing Street, 30th November, 1928.
I HAVE the honour to acknowledge the receipt of your Confidential despatch of the 13th of October* forwarding an account of your visit to the Sultan of the Maldives. 2. Your despatch has been laid before the King, and His Majesty has read the despatch with interest and has commanded that a suitable message should be returned will you to the Sultan, thanking him for his expressions of loyalty. I shall be glad if address such a message to the Sultan accordingly.
3.
I have caused a copy of your despatch to be forwarded to the Lords Com- missioners of the Admiralty and have conveyed to them an expression of your appre- ciation of their action in allowing you to visit the Islands in H.M.S. Effingham.
I have, &c.,
* No. 1.
Maldives.-Gp. 6. 2235/3175. 30. 5/29. (84418) M. & S.
L. S. AMERY.
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