34
Katanga, who is at present on leave of absence in this country, drawing my attention to the danger of the spread of sleeping sickness on the Congo Rhodesia frontier owing to the lack of proper precautions on the part of the Katanga authorities.
I also enclose a copy of the Annals of Tropical Medicine, 1909, Oct. iii., No. 2, pp. 277-309, on which the article in the Bulletin of the Sleeping Sickness Bureau to which Mr. Beak refers is founded.
I request that you will point out to Monsieur Renkin the apparent inadequacy of the measures adopted by the Katanga authorities, and suggest to him the desir- ability of more energetic action, since otherwise the efforts of the authorities of Rhodesia are not only hampered in that country, but, as the writers of the article observe, the natives who seek to avoid the measures taken to check the disease con- stitute a grave source of danger to the Katanga.
Sir A. Hardinge, K.C.B., K.C.M.G.,
&c., &c.,
&c.
I am, &c.,
(for the Secretary of State)
W. LANGLEY.
83
energetic measures taken in the south, and I left with him the Bulletin of the Sleeping Sickness Bureau, promising to add to it as soon as I received it, which I have not yet done, the "Annals of Tropical Medicine, 1909," to which Mr. Beak refers.
M. Renkin said that he would be obliged by some more precise particulars. He would like the names of the localities mentioned in Mr. Beak's despatch whose inhabitants had decamped over the border from Rhodesia into the Congo territory. and information as to the measures which that officer had proposed to Commander Tonneau. He felt very strongly about sleeping sickness, having himself seen the disease in all its horror during his recent tour in the Congo, and having realised how difficult it was to prevent its propagation by natives suffering from its earlier stages. He would welcome any suggestions of a practical and detailed nature, supported by details and facts, and as regarded the Uelle district, he would make further enquiries and do his best to conciliate commercial and sanitary, interests.
I have, &c.,
ARTHUR H. HARDINGE,
Enclosure 4 in No. 19.
་། ཟ། ། ་།
PUBLIC RECORD OFFICE
C.O. 885
Reference :-
21 PUBLIC RECORD OFFICE, LONDON
ALLY WITHOUT PERMISSION OF THE BE REPRODUCED PHOTOGRAPHIC- COPYRIGHT PHOTOGRAPH-NOT TO
SIR,
Enclosure 3 in No. 19.
Sir A. HARDINGE to Sir EDWARD GREY. (No. 20. Africa. Confidential.)
Brussels, February 14, 1910. I SPOKE to M. Renkin this morning about the Sleeping Sickness Ordinance of April last, of which Mr. Armstrong complains in his despatch, No. 3, of the 7th ultimo, forwarded in your No. 20 of the 8th instant as closing the Uelle district to ivory traders.
His Excellency said that this district was at present absolutely free from the sleeping sickness now devastating Uganda, and that it was most important to keep it So. A quarantine, or, rather, medical inspection, post had therefore been established at Lado to examine all persons, whether natives or Europeans, entering it. Asked if British travellers wishing to enter the Province Orientale from Ankole or Unyoro would have to go round by Lado, His Excellency said No; the measure was designed to prevent the propagation of sleeping sickness by caravans under the control of Årab or Greek traders, who continually crossed and recrossed, and would not be enforced in practice against private European travellers of respectable position.
I pointed out to him that its practical effect might be to close the Uelle district to all ivory traders from Uganda. He said that in this case he would try to devise some other arrangement with a view to removing that impediment, and have another more conveniently selected quarantine post established. As a matter of fact, though I did not allude in speaking to him to the imminent termination of the Congolese authority in the Enclave, this will have to be done, when, in the course of the present year, Lado reverts to the Soudan, and a quarantine or medical inspection station to be erected at Mahagi. M. Renkin repeated that he was desirous of giving every encouragement to the ivory trade, and whatever may be the secret sentiments of the local Congolese authorities, of which I am not qualified to speak, and as to which Mr. Armstrong may have adequate grounds of suspicion, I do not think there is any necessity to put the most unfavourable construction possible upon the motives for every step which he may take.
Another of our consuls, Mr. Beak, attacks him for undue remissness in the opposite direction, and in your despatch, No. 21, of the 10th instant you direct me to point out the inadequacy of his prophylactic measures on the southern frontier of the Congo territory. I felt that if I pressed these two arguments together, M. Renkin might say that we found fault with him whatever he did, that he was like the miller in the fable who was blamed for cruelty to children because he let his boy walk by his donkey's side, for cruelty to animals when he made the boy ride with him on the beast, and for being an ass himself when he in his turn dismounted and walked in order to relieve it. I therefore took the line that we could not be too stringent in our efforts to combat sleeping sickness, and that so far from finding fault with the measures adopted for its exclusion from the Uelle district, which could, I thought, casily be brought into line with the requirements of trade, we should wish more
SIR,
Foreign Office, March 8, 1910. I AM directed by Secretary Sir E. Grey to state that, on receipt of your despatch, No. 4, Leave, of January 23rd last, calling attention to the danger of the spread of sleeping sickness owing to the apathy of the Katanga Administration in taking preventive measures, His Majesty's Minister at Brussels was instructed to bring the matter to the notice of the Belgian Government.
A despatch has now been received from Sir A. Hardinge, reporting a conversa- tion with the Belgian Colonial Minister. Monsieur Renkin said he would be obliged if he could be furnished with some more precise particulars concerning the occurrences alluded to in your despatch above referred to, and with the names of the villages whose inhabitants had decamped over the border from Rhodesia into the Congo. He would also like information as to any measures which you may have proposed to Commander Tonneau with regard to preventing the spread of the disease. These villages are not named in the article by Messrs. Kinghorn and Montgomery quoted by you, and I am to request that you will, if possible, provide Sir E. Grey with materials for a reply to the above questions.
I a.n to add that Monsieur Renkin stated to Sir A. Hardinge that he felt very strongly about sleeping sickness, having himself seen the disease in all its horror during his recent tour in the Congo, and having realized how difficult it was to prevent its propagation by natives suffering from its earlier stages. Monsieur Renkin further said he would welcome any suggestions of a practical and detailed nature, supported by details and facts.
G. B. Beak, Esq.
SIR,
Enclosure 5 in No. 19.
I am, &c.,
W. LANGLEY.
British Club, 8, Boulevard Malesherbes, Paris, March 12th, 1910.
I HAVE the honour to acknowledge the receipt of Mr. Langley's despatch, No 5455/10, of the 8th instant, reporting a conversation between the British Minister at Brussels and the Belgian Colonial Minister on the subject of human trypanoso- miasis and requiring me to furnish certain detailed information on the propagation of this disease and the measures to be adopted to check its spread.
In reply. I regret 10 say that my office archives are not immediately available and that, consequently. I cannot enter as fully as I should wish into details. These details, however, do not affect the main issue.
Commandant Tonneau-who is now, I believe, in Brussels-furnished particu- lars to his Government of natives clearing to the Congo on account of the sleeping sickness measures enforced in Rhodesia. Further particulars will be found in the published report of Messrs. Kinghorn and Montgomery.
The suggestions which I have ventured to make to the local Katanga authorities from time to time and unofficially are all contained in my numerous reports to the Foreign Office, and they were recently embodied in an agreement concluded in
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