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The Broken Hill-Fort Jameson road was examined very carefully last year by Doctors Kinghorn and Montgomery, who searched for palpalis, with negative results. Immediately after the case mentioned a further search was instituted by two Medical Officers of the North-Eastern Rhodesia Administration, again without dis- covery of the fly.
The Principal Medical Officer of that Administration refers to the discovery some years ago by Sir John Kirk of Glossina palpalis on the Zambesi between Victoria Falls and Tete, and suggests that the Broken Hill case may have originated while the patient was travelling on the lower Zambesi.
(b) Early this month & European named Armstrong was found to be suffering from sleeping sickness at Hartley Hill. He, with a white companion and ten natives, had just returned from an extensive tour of about a year in North-Eastern Rhodesia. Their route was from Feira, through Fort Jameson, Chinsali, Kasama, Mpika, Serenje, and Hargreaves, and finally back through Feira to Hartley. The whole of the party are under observation by our Medical Officers, and it has been ascertained that they passed through three or four belts of tsetse fly during their travels in North-Eastern Rhodesia. Whether these were palpalis or the better known morsitans is not certain, but one of the natives asserts that a wide belt of palpalis was traversed near the point where the Loangwa river crosses the main road from Fort Jameson to Broken Hill.
With the exception of Sir John Kirk's discovery, to which I referred above and which took place in 1864, the palpalis fly has not been identified anywhere in the Zambesi basin, but I am informed that the habitat is not unfavourable, and with the increase of railway communication there is a danger that the fly may have been transmitted from the Congo to parts of Rhodesia south of where we have hitherto imagined. Tsetse flies have been conveyed by railway in Uganda, and the possi- bility of an epidemic of the disease appearing in the Zambesi valley must be regarded with the gravest concern by the whole of South Africa, and calls for urgent and vigorous measures.
This Government, on the advice of the Medical Director, has under considera- tion an expedition to examine the Zambesi river from the Falls to Feira, with the object of a systematic search for the fly, and I hope that it may be possible to despatch this expedition during the coming wet season, that being the time of the year when the tsetse fly is most in evidence. The Northern Administrations are about to prosecute a similar search along the Loangwa river as far as the suspected belt. It is proposed that the expedition from Southern Rhodesia shall comprise a medical officer and an entomologist, and it is considered that their investigations would cover a period of not less than six months. It is estimated that the cost of this expedition will be not much less than £2,000, and having in view the gravity of the issues, in which all the States of South Africa are interested, I venture to hope that the other Governments of South Africa will be willing to share in the cost of the investigation.
In view of the serious possibilities involved, I trust that the proposals I have made will receive consideration at the earliest possible moment by the Governments of the various States.
His Excellency
The High Commissioner. Johannesburg.
I have, &c.,
W. H. MILTON,
Administrator.
Enclosure 2 in No. 13.
TELEGRAM from ADMINISTRATOR OF SOUTHERN RHODESIA to IMPERIAL SECRETARY,
Johannesburg.
December 1st. No. 626. Please delay action on my despatch, No. 247, of 23rd ultimo regarding search for palpalis on Zambesi and Loangwa, as information just received may largely reduce the field in which investigation is required
•
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Enclosure 3 in No. 13.
The ADMINISTRATOR OF SOUTHERN RHODESIA to the HIGH COMMISSIONER. (No. 35.) MY LORD,
Administrator's Office, Salisbury, 14th February, 1910.
I HAVE the honour to acknowledge the receipt of your Lordship's despatch of the 5th February, enquiring whether the further information regarding the search for Glossina palpalis, referred to in my telegram of the 1st of December last, can now be furnished.
When I wrote my despatch of the 23rd November, 1909, two expeditions were in contemplation-one to conduct investigations on behalf of this Administration along the banks of the Zambesi river between the Victoria Falls and Feira, and the other to be sent by the Administrations of North-Eastern and North-Western Rhodesia to search along the Loangwa river as far as the point where it crosses the main road from Fort Jameson to Broken Hill.
It has since been found possible to arrange for the whole investigation to be undertaken by the Administration of North-Western Rhodesia. A systematic search is now being carried on under the direction of Dr. May, the Principal Medical Officer of North-Western Rhodesia, in the Loangwa valley, and this will be extended to the Zambesi without delay. An entomologist has been engaged in England to assist the medical officers in their observations, and is now proceeding to the spot.
The Southern Rhodesia Government is bearing a share in the expense of this investigation, but as the cost will be much less than was originally expected, owing to the combination of the two expeditions under one direction. I beg to withdraw my request that some contributions should be made by the other South African Governments.
His Excellency
The High Commissioner,
Johannesburg.
7668
SIR,
(No. 168.)
No. 14.
I have, &c.,
W. H. MILTON,
Administrator.
EAST AFRICA PROTECTORATE,
THE SECRETARY OF STATE to THE GOVERNOR. [Answered by No. 27.]
Downing Street, 2 April, 1910.
I HAVE the honour to acknowledge the receipt of your despatch, No. 89, of the 19th of February,* transmitting a copy of the "Agricultural Journal" for January, which contains a full report of the Sleeping Sickness Conference held at Nairobi in April, 1909.
2.
-
I have to request that you will furnish me with your observations on the various recommendations made by the Conference, and also with a description of any action which has been taken, or which is suggested, for the purpose of carrying out those recommendations.
3. I should add, with regard to No. 8 of the recommendations, that the matter has been discussed by the Tropical Diseases Committee of the Royal Society with Sir D. Bruce, and that it is not proposed to appoint a full commission at present, but, with the sanction of the Treasury, to send out an expert with medical and entomological experience to work at trypanosomiasis in Uganda from the entomo- logical side.
4.
A similar despatch has been sent to the Officer Administering the Goveru ment of Uganda.
1 have, &c.,
CREWE.
23264
• No. 12.
D 2
PUBLIC RECORD OFFICE
Reference :-
TTIC.O. 8
885
21 PUBLIC RECORD OFFICE, LONDON
ALLY WITHOUT PERMISSION OF THE BE REPRODUCED PHOTOGRAPHIC- COPYRIGHT PHOTOGRAPH-NOT TO
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