36
October last between the medical officers of the Comité Spécial du Katanga and the Union Minière du Haut Katanga.
A copy of this agreement I forwarded in a previous report, and a summary of it appeared in a recent issue of the "Sleeping Sickness Bureau Bulletin." The measures proposed and agreed to by the Katanga medical authorities were submitted to the local Administration and they were, pre- sumably, forwarded to Brussels for sanction. As a matter of fact, the sleeping sickness dossier of the Congo Administration is of a most voluminous and detailed character, and it is inconceivable that on this subject the Belgian Minister has not a mine of information at his disposal.
The measures recently submitted by the local medical officers are eminently prac- ticable. They are based on experience, and they have been found to work satisfac- torily in Uganda, in North-Eastern Rhodesia, and elsewhere. But to render them effective, the Katanga medical staff must be at least trebled in numbers, and it must command the hearty co-operation of the Administration. The adoption of these measures, consequently, will involve considerable expenditure, and I am confident that, if the Belgian Government are earnestly desirous of checking sleeping sickness, expenditure is the only difficulty which they have to face.
For the present, therefore, and pending a wider knowledge of the subject, I would humbly suggest that Monsieur Renkin be urged not only to sanction but also strictly to enforce the convention arrived at between Dr. Pearson and Dr. Polidori. and approved provisionally, I believe, by Colonel Wangermée. Money and an in- creased staff are the main essentials for carrying out this convention, a copy of which was enclosed in a previous despatch.
37
prendre au Congo Belge pour combattre la propagation de la trypanosome, vont au devant des conceptions des autorités coloniales anglaises et dans cet ordre d'idées j'accueillerais avec la plus sérieuse attention les propositions qu'elles croiraient devoir me transmettre, afin de pouvoir ainsi concerter nos mutuels efforts.
Je saisis cette occasion, etc.,
(No. 53. Africa.)
Enclosure 7 in No. 19.
RENKIN.
SIR,
WITH reference to your despatch, No. 20, Africa, of the 14th ultimo, respecting
Foreign Office, March 31, 1910. sleeping sickness in the Katanga, I transmit to you herewith, for your information, copy of a letter* 'from Mr. Beak on the subject.
With regard to the agreement between the medical officers of the Comité Spécial and the Union Minière, I would refer you to my despatch, No. 143, Africa, of Decem- ber 23rd last, containing the scheme in question.
I also enclose a copy of the Annals of Tropical Medicine, 1909" (Oct., 1909, Vol. 3, No. 2), containing the full text of the article by Messrs. Kinghorn and Montgomery, which does not, however, mention by name any of the villages whose inhabitants had decamped over the border from Rhodesia into the Congo."
I am, &c.,
I have, &c.,
(for the Secretary of State)
G. B. BEAK,
His Britannic Majesty's Vice-Consul,
Katanga.
Sir A. Hardinge, K.C.B., K.C.M.G.,
&c.,
&c.,
&c.
W. LANGLEY.
The Under Secretary of State, Foreign Office.
10089
No. 20.
(No. 53. Africa.)
SIR,
Enclosure 6 in No. 19.
Brussels, March, 28, 1910. WITH reference to my despatch, No. 20, Confidential, of this series, of the 14th ultimo, relative to the measures to be taken in the Congo against the sleeping sickness, I have the honour to report that I received on the 8th instant the copy of the " Annals of Tropical Medicine," nominally enclosed in your despatch, No. 21, Africa, of the 10th ultimo, and I at once forwarded it in a private note to M. Renkin.
I have now received a reply from His Excellency, copy of which I have the honour to enclose, thanking me for this publication and promising to consider most seriously any suggestions of the British Colonial authorities for combating by mutual efforts the spread of the sickness.
The Right Honourable
Sir Edward Grey, Bart., M.P.,
&c., &c.,
&c.
(Personnelle.)
MONSIEUR LE MINISTRE,
I have, &c.,
(for Sir Arthur Hardinge)
GRANVILLE.
Ministère des Colonies, Bruxelles, le 26 Mars, 1910. J'AI reçu votre lettre du 8 courant et l'exemplaire des "Annals of Tropical Medicine and l'arasitology, Vol. III., No. 2," y joint. Je vous remercie infiniment d'avoir bien voulu attirer mon attention sur le passage de cette publication con- cernant le rapport relatif à la trypanosomiase humaine en Rhodésie N.E. et en Nyasa- land.
Les publications émanant de l'Ecole de Médicine Tropicale de Liverpool, que je reçois régulièrement, font toujours l'objet d'un examen très attentif de ma part.
Les instructions formelles que j'ai données, en ce qui concerne les mesures
SIR,
COLONIAL OFFICE to SLEEPING SICKNESS BUREAU. WITH reference to your letter of the 5th inst., I am directed by the Earl of
Downing Street, 14 April, 1910. Crewe to transmit to you, for your information, a copy of a despatch from the High Commissioner for South Africa, enclosing copies of despatches from the Adminis- trator of Southern Rhodesia on the subject of sleeping sickness in Rhodesia.
10089
No. 21.
I am, &c.,
H. W. JUST.
COLONIAL OFFICE to FOREIGN OFFICE. [Copy to High Commissioner, South Africa, 14 April, 1910. No. 123, L.F.]
Downing Street, 14 April, 1910.
SIR,
WITH reference to the letter from this department of the 26th of March§ and previous correspondence, I am directed by the Earl of Crewe to transmit to you, to be laid before Sir E. Grey, copies of two despatches from the High Commissioner for South Africa and a copy of a letter from the Sleeping Sickness Bureau relative to the investigation and control of sleeping sickness in Rhodesia.
2. The letter from this office of the 26th of March§ and previous correspondence dealt with a proposal for a discussion in London on the specific question of the measures to be taken to prevent the spread of sleeping sickness by the new Rhodesia- Katanga Railway. Lord Crewe would be glad to learn whether any reply has been received from the Belgian Government on that question.
3. The correspondence of which copies are now forwarded raises, inter alia, the wider question what action should be taken to prevent the spreading of sleeping sickness by means of the passage of labourers to the Congo Free State, and especially
• Enclosure 5. † No. 17. ‡ No. 13.
§ 7258: not printed.
Nos. 8 and 13.
PUBLIC RECORD OFFICE
Reference :-
TTIC.O.885
21 PUBLIC RECORD OFFICE, LONDON
ALLY WITHOUT PERMISSION OF THE BE REPRODUCED PHOTOGRAPHIC- COPYRIGHT PHOTOGRAPH-NOT TO
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