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say £500 or £600 a year, and asking for a contribution. Ife mentioned that it was understood that an assistant of Sir John McFadyean would do the work of preparing the bulletin for about £100 to £150 a year; Sir John McFadyean and Dr. Stockman would supervise his work, and the bulletin would be edited by Dr. Bagshawe, and probably the total cost would not exceed, to begin with at any rate, £500 or £600 The Sleeping Sickness Bureau Managing Committee would control the new venture; if it grew too large it might very possibly be made into a separate organiza- tion, but that was for the future.

a year.

The Committee agreed that Mr. Read's proposals were satisfactory, and concurred in such a despatch being sent to South Africa.

32021

No. 40.

UNION OF SOUTH AFRICA.

THE SECRETARY OF STATE to THE GOVERNOR-GENERAL. (No. 290.)

MY LORD,

Downing Street, 15 November, 1910.

I HAVE the honour to inform Your Excellency that the following resolution was passed at the International Veterinary Congress held at the Hague last year :— For the purpose of carrying out the above proposals there should be established an International Bureau of Tropical Diseases of Animals, consisting of veterinary representatives from all the countries concerned. This Bureau, amongst other things, should publish a bulletin giving the results of all recent researches dealing with tropical diseases of animals."

2. A similar resolution in favour of the establishment of an International Bureau of Sleeping Sickness was passed at the International Conference on Sleep- ing Sickness which was held in London in 1907-8, but it was found impossible to give effect to it, in consequence of a divergence of opinion among the Powers as to the most suitable place for the establishment of the Bureau.

3. As the number of Powers interested is greater in the present instance, there

is but little prospect of unanimity among them..

4. At the same time, there can be no doubt that tropical veterinary medicine would derive great benefit from an organization of this kind, whose main function would be to collect from all sources information regarding the tropical diseases of animals, to collate, condense, and, where necessary, translate, this information and to distribute it as widely and quickly as possible among the persons who are engaged in combating those diseases.

5. When the scheme for the establishment of an International Bureau of Sleeping Sickness fell through, His Majesty's Government organized a Sleeping Sickness Bureau in London, which has proved an unqualified success and which. while accomplishing all that it was hoped to achieve by means of an international bureau, has worked both smoothly and economically-a result which is no doubt mainly due to the fact that the Bureau is under the control of one country.

6. It is proposed, as soon as the necessary funds are available, to extend the work of the Bureau so as to include other tropical diseases of man than sleeping sickness, and, in the meantime, it has been pointed out to me that with a compara tively small additional expenditure the Bureau could be placed in a position to deal with the tropical diseases of animals and virtually to give effect to the resolution passed at the Hague Conference.

7. The Honorary Committee of Management of the Bureau consists of the following:

:-

The Right Honourable Sir J. West-Ridgeway (Chairman), G.C.B., G.C.M.G., Sir P. Manson. K.C.M.G., F.R.S.,

Sir R. Boyce, F.R.S..

Dr. J. Rose-Bradford, F.R.S. (Secretary of the Royal Society),

Colonel Sir D. Bruce, C.B., F.R.S.,

and a representative of the Foreign Office and Colonial Office, respectively.

Mr

E. E. Austen, F.Z.S., of the Natural History Museum, South Kensington, is the

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Honorary Consulting Entomologist, and Dr. A. G. Bagshawe the paid Director, of the Bureau,

8. In order to provide the necessary organization for carrying on the work of the veterinary section, I should propose to invite Sir J. MacFadyean to join the Committee of Management of the Bureau and to ask the Board of Agriculture to allow Mr. S. Stockman, their Chief Veterinary Officer, also to become a member of the Committee. The qualifications of these gentlemen for the work in question are so well known that it is unnecessary for me to say more on this point.

9. It would, however, be necessary not only to strengthen the Committee of Management by the addition of the experts first mentioned, but also to strengthen the editorial staff, and this I should propose to effect by the employment of Mr. Sheather as a sub-editor for veterinary work under the present Director of the Bureau.

The

10. Mr. Sheather is employed under Sir J. MacFadycan at the Royal Veterin- ary College and is, I understand, thoroughly qualified for the work in question. As it would be possible for him to combine the work with his present duties, it would probably be unnecessary to pay him at the rate of more than £150 per annum. cost of printing and distributing the Veterinary Bulletin might be placed at £250 a year, and some additional remuneration, say £100 a year, would be required for the Director of the Bureau, who would be responsible for the literary form and arrangement of the publication.

11. It appears, therefore, that for an additional expenditure of £500 a year it would be possible to give effect to the resolution of the Hague Conference, and I should be glad if you would ask your Ministers whether they would be prepared to provide the necessary funds by making an annual contribution of the above-men- tioned amount as from the 1st of April, 1911.

12.

I should add that Dr. Theiler supported the resolution quoted in the first paragraph of this despatch, and that he would no doubt be able to speak to the great value of the scheme to South Africa.

I have, &c.,

L. HARCOURT.

38073

No. 50.

MINUTES OF THE MEETING OF THE MANAGING COMMITTEE OF THE SLEEPING SICKNESS BUREAU, HELD AT THE COLONIAL OFFICE ON THE 16TH DECEMBER, 1910, AT 4.30 PM.

PRESENT:

Mr. READ (in the Chair).

Mr. KEITH, Secretary.

Dr. BAGSHAWE, Director of the Sleeping Sickness Bureau, also attended.

(1) The minutes of the last meeting* were approved.

(2) The question of the grant of an allowance of £50 to Lieutenant Frazer was considered.

Dr. Bagshawe pointed out that if Lieutenant Frazer gave up the work and came home, as he was entitled to do, there was serious risk of there being a breach in the continuity of the laboratory investigations, as Dr. van Someren was not avail- able and it was not desirable that Dr. Carpenter should be tied down to laboratory work.

Moreover, it was pointed out that the grant could be justified by the fact that Lieutenant Frazer had been kept out for a long time, and that the £50 would not, therefore, be an inconvenient precedent.

It was agreed to recommend to the Secretary of State that the £50 grant should be approved.

(3) The question of sleeping sickness in Rhodesia and Nyasaland was con- sidered. Mr. Lambert was present to represent the Dominions Department.

Dr. Bagshawe expressed the opinion that on the face of the matter the Portu- guese proposals with a view to preventing the spread of sleeping sickness in Portu- guese territories were proper, and that the Administration of Southern Rhodesia was fully justified in co-operating with the Portuguese Administration. He laid

• No. 48.