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PUBLIC RECORD OFFICE

Reference :-

C.O. 885

20 PUBLIC RECORD OFFICE, LONDON

ALLY WITHOUT PERMISSION OF THE BE REPRODUCED PHOTOGRAPHIC- COPYRIGHT PHOTOGRAPH-NOT TO

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Presented for authentication and assent as a correctly and faithfully printed copy of the Bill as passed by the Legislative Council.

M. E. WINGFIELD,

Acting Colonial Secretary.

E. A. HUME,

Chief Magistrate. DONALD KINGDON,

Legal Assistant.

Assented to in His Majesty's name this Twenty-seventh day of March, 1911.

GEORGE C. DENTON,

Governor.

Enclosure 2 in No. 30.

A REPORT on an Ordinance entitled "An Ordinance to amend the Wild Animals, Birds and Fish Preservation Ordinance, 1901."

This Ordinance has been passed in order to give the Governor in Council wider powers in regulating the purchase, sale and export of ivory, with the ultimate object of protecting the elephant.

Section 3 of the Ordinance of 1901 gives the Governor in Council a variety of powers similar to those possessed in other West African Colonies, notably Sierra Leone, in connection with the preservation of wild animals, birds and fish.

In Sierra Leone in 1907, these powers were extended, so as to cover the impo- sition of restrictions on the sale or barter of elephant's tusks below a prescribed weight. The present Ordinance gives a símilar extension of powers in this Colony.

In my opinion His Majesty's assent may properly be given to this Ordinance.

DONALD KINGDON,

Bathurst,

Gambia,

30th March, 1911.

12137

SIR,

No. 31.

COLONIAL OFFICE to TREASURY. [Answered by No. 32.]

Legal Assistant.

Downing Street, 28 April, 1911. I AM directed by Mr. Secretary Harcourt to request you to inform the Lords Commissioners of the Treasury that he has had under his consideration a matter which has an important bearing on the sleeping sickness problem in the East African Protectorates.

2. Mr. Harcourt is advised that Colonel Sir D. Bruce and his collaborators in Uganda by an exhaustive series of experiments, with every precaution taken against fallacy, have shown that certain species of antelope can, by the bites of infected tsetse flies, be readily infected with the human trypanosome of sleeping sickness, that the antelope do not suffer at all in their health, that for 81 days after they have been bitten they are capable of infecting tsetse flies which are fed on them, and that these tsetse flies give by their bite sleeping sickness to susceptible animals; and, further, that although no antelope has up to the present been found infected in nature, it is impossible to avoid the conclusion that these animals in sleeping sickness

"reservoir" of the sleeping sickness virus. areas do actually form a

3. Information which has just been received from the laboratory at Mpumu, in Uganda, only tends to confirm this conclusion, as there is now evidence to show that the antelope remain infective for 8 months instead of the 81 days originally stated, and further, that there is an additional species of antelope which is capable of carrying the infection.

4. If this conclusion holds good for other parts of Africa, it follows that in the presence of human trypanosomiasis man, antelope, and tsetse flies cannot co-exist. The extermination of tsetse flies on anything but an insignificant scale is not at present a practical measure, and it is, therefore, necessary to investigate further the

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life history of these insects (their Lordships will recollect the recent correspondence regarding Professor Newstead's proposed mission to Nyasaland), but, what is of still greater importance, it is necessary to consider whether some action should not be taken against the antelope.

5. "Mr. Harcourt is, however, advised that, before such action can be seriously discussed, more information must be obtained; that it must be ascertained whether the conclusions arrived at in the case of Uganda hold good in other parts of Africa, e.g., the East Africa Protectorate, Nyasaland, and Rhodesia, whether large mammals other than antelope are equally capable of harbouring the human trypanosome, and whether the same applies to small as well as large mammals. It has also to be ascer- tained whether the same holds good for other wild vertebrates, such as birds.

6. Mr. Harcourt understands that these are only a few branches of the enquiry; that the British South Africa Company's Commission about to commence work in North-Eastern Rhodesia will doubtless repeat Sir D. Bruce's experiments with ante- lope, but that it is not to be expected that it can seriously attack the whole problem of the part played by the African fauna in the maintenance of sleeping sickness.

7. Considering the magnitude and the difficulties of such an investigation, and the importance which it has now assumed, the time appears to have come for a careful enquiry on the spot into the relation of the African fauna to the maintenance and spread of human trypanosomiasis; and, secondarily, of the trypanosome diseases of domestic animals.

8. Mr. Harcourt has accordingly consulted the Royal Society, and has now learnt that their Tropical Diseases Committee are of opinion that it is very desirable that a Commission should be appointed to conduct such an enquiry in Africa, and that, in the event of the Commission being formed, the Committee are prepared to recommend to the Council of the Royal Society that the enquiry should be carried out under the direction of the Society. As the Committee contains some of the most eminent experts in this branch of science, as some of those experts are busy profes- sional men whose time is valuable, and as their services are given gratuitously, their Lordships will, no doubt, recognise the advantages of the proposed arrangement, and the public spirit which has prompted the Committee to suggest it.

9. The Committee have discussed the composition of the proposed Commission, and, while they are unable to submit complete recommendations, they consider it fortunate that they have been able to secure the offer of the services of Sir D. Bruce as Director of the Commission, provided that this offer obtains the concurrence of the Army Council, and provided, of course, that the whole scheme receives their Lord- ships' sanction.

10. The Committee think it desirable to act in consultation with Sir D. Bruce in making any further selection of names, but they are of opinion that the Commis- sion should include, besides Sir D. Bruce, one officer of the Army Medical Corps (probably Captain A. E. Hamerton, D.S.O., who worked under Sir D. Bruce in Uganda), an officer of the Colonial Medical Service, a veterinary officer of suitable experience, and an entomologist.

11. So far as they can judge upon the information before them, the Committee. believe that the main part of the proposed investigation could be carried out under the most favourable conditions for success in Nyasaland, and they recommend the establishment of an adequate laboratory in a suitable position in that region. In these circumstances the post of entomologist could be usefully filled by Professor Newstead, whose employment in Nyasaland has been recently sanctioned by their Lordships. The work which it was originally proposed that he should undertake will form a part of the larger enquiry now suggested, and the presence of the medical members of the Commission would secure the proper medical treatment for him in case of sickness, which he might have found it difficult to obtain if he had been work- ing alone at a distance froin à Government station.

12. The Committee are not in a position to make any definite proposal with regard to the duration of the Commission, but they are of opinion that the investiga- tion could not be carried out adequately in a shorter time than three years.

13. Professor Newstead's duties at the University of Liverpool will not admit of his remaining in Nyasaland for more than six months, and arrangements will have to be made for his replacement at the end of that period. It is, however, very desir- able that he should be attached to the Commission in the early stages of the enquiry as he is probably better qualified than any other expert in this country to undertake the entomological part of the work, and is, therefore, more likely to discover promis- ing lines of investigation, which can be followed out by his successor.