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PUBLIC RECORD OFFICE

Reference :-

C.O. 885

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

20 PUBLIC RECORD OFFICE, LONDON

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prevent altogether the entry of infected natives, but the examination would secure the prevention of entry by natives who were clearly suffering from the disease.

(4) The Committee considered the question of sending out an officer to the Gold Coast, to report on the question of sleeping sickness there. It was pointed out that sleeping sickness existed in Togoland, and that there was some evidence that it was endemic in the Colony itself. The Committee agreed to recommend to the Secretary of State that an officer should be sent out for the work, preferably one who had already had experience in Uganda. It was understood that the officer selected would communicate with the Director of the Bureau before going to the Gold Coast, and discuss with him a scheme of work.

(5) The Director mentioned that he desired to be authorised to communicate with the British South Africa Company, to suggest that they should detach a medical officer to search for the Glossina palpalis in the Zambesi Valley, where there was some reason to suppose that the Glossina might be found. The Committee approved his proposal.

(6) The Director proposed that the salary of his Assistant, Major Thimm, should be raised from three guineas to three pounds ten shillings a week, with effect from the 1st of April, 1909. He stated that the funds at his disposal would be adequate for this purpose. The Committee approved his proposal.

(7) The question of the position of the Director of the Bureau was raised (Dr. Bagshawe having withdrawn). Mr. Read laid before the Committee a proposal that the Sleeping Sickness Bureau should be extended to be a bureau of tropical diseases. The India Office, he thought, might be induced to grant a yearly sub- sidy of £1,000 for this purpose; the same sum might be got from the principal Colonies, and with the contributions from the Soudan and the Imperial Government, the total of £3,400 a year might be reached. He explained that at one time it had been contemplated to secure the services of Dr. Balfour of the Wellcome Laboratory in the Soudan, but that he doubted whether he would be willing to leave the lalora- tory until he had replaced the collections destroyed by the recent fire; that Dr. Bagshawe had done his work admirably; and that he, therefore, thought that the extended Bureau should have as its Director Dr. Bagshawe, whose salary might be raised to £600-£750 by increments. Sir West Ridgeway was inclined to think that the extended bureau should be merged with the Tropical Diseases Research Fund, as the Colonial Governments would hardly care to be asked to subscribe to two separate funds. On the other hand, Dr. Rose Bradford and Mr. Read urged that the Research Fund was definitely devoted to research and teaching, whereas the Bureau was devoted to dissemination of information, and that there was no likeli- hood of there Leing any serious overlapping. The Committee finally decided to recommend the scheme as proposed by Mr. Read for the favourable consideration of the Secretary of State, after which it was proposed that the India Office should be approached, and in the event of the India Office concurring, steps should be taken to approach the Colonial Governments and to ask the Treasury and the Soudan Government to put their contributions on a permanent basis. In the meantime it was proposed that Dr. Bagshawe should remain on a temporary footing.

(8) Mr. Read mentioned incidentally that steps were being taken under the direction of the Secretary of State for the organization of entomological research; it was proposed to appoint an entomologist for East Africa and one for West Africa to make collections and to train medical officers to observe insects.

It was hoped also that by this means a careful study could be made of the life history of insects, a matter of the greatest possible importance, in view of the fact that the chief difficulties in the administration of tropical Africa were due to troubles through insects.

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No. 28.

UGANDA.

THE SECRETARY OF STATE to THE GOVERNOR.

[Answered by No. 36.]

(No. 93.) SIR,

Downing Street, 26 March, 1909. I HAVE the honour to inform you that at the last meeting of the Managing Committee of the Sleeping Sickness Bureau, held on the 5th of March, the Bureau

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recommended to me that steps should be taken to set apart in Uganda two medical officers to treat cases of sleeping sickness, the object being to ensure that the officers in question should deal throughout with some given series of sleeping sickness cases, and should not until the end of the treatment be moved to any other station.

2. The Bureau have represented to me that, under the present conditions, medical officers are frequently, for administrative purposes, moved from station to station, with the result that they are unable to carry to a conclusion observations on any particular set of sleeping sickness cases. that scientific results of considerable value could be obtained through continued The Committee are of opinion observations by the same officers, and I should be glad if you could find it possible to give effect to the arrangement which they recommend.

3 The Committee have also suggested that the officers selected by you should be required to submit, every six months, reports on the work which they have done, for the consideration of the Managing Committee. The officers themselves should carry on their work in touch with the investigations at present controlled by the Royal Society, and no doubt so long as Colonel Sir David Bruce remains in the Protectorate they would be placed at his disposal. After his return they would remain in touch with the Society through the medium of the Managing Committee, on which the Royal Society is represented.

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SIR,

No. 29.

COLONIAL OFFICE to INDIA OFFICE. [Answered by No. 37.]

I have, &c.,

CREWE.

I AM directed by the Earl of Crewe to request you to lay before Viscount

Downing Street, 1 April, 1909. Morley the following proposal with regard to the Sleeping Sickness Bureau.

2. This bureau was established last year, in order to collect and supply accurate information regarding the work which has been, and is being, done in the way of research into the origin and transmission of sleeping sickness and the measures of treatment and of prophylaxis.

3. The bureau is supported by contributions from the Imperial Government and from the Government of the Soudan. The staff consists of a Director, Dr. A. G. Bagshawe, of the Uganda Medical Service, who has been temporarily seconded for work as Director of the bureau, and of an assistant. The nature of the work done will be seen from the enclosed copies of the publications issued up to the present date by the bureau, which include both strictly scientific work and also popular information for the use of persons exposed to risk of infection. Arrangements have also been made for the publication of a bibliography of the literature of sleeping sickness.

4. The work of the bureau is carried on under the supervision of an Advisory Committee, of which the chairman is Sir J. West Ridgeway, G.C.B., G.C.M.G.. K.S.C.I. (who is also the chairman of the Tropical Diseases Research Fund), and of which the other members are Sir Patrick Manson, M.D., K.C.M.G., FR.S.; Colonel Sir David Bruce, C.B.; Sir Rubert Boyce, of the University of Liverpool; a member of the Foreign Office, representing the Government of the Soudan; Dr. Rose Bradford, F.R.S., representing the Royal Society; and Mr. H. J. Read, C.M.G., representing the Colonial Office.

5. Lord Crewe of opinion that the work done by the bureau during the short period of its existence has been in every respect satisfactory, and has fully justified its creation. It now appears to him to be desirable to extend the usefulness of the bureau by making it a bureau for all tropical diseases and not merely for sleeping sickness. The duty of the bureau would be to collect and publish, either in ertenso or in an abbreviated form, all valuable contributions to the study of tropical diseases generally, and to prepare popular information for circulation to persons who run the risk of contracting such diseases. every worker on the Continent, in America, and in this country with regard to The bureau is already in touch with practically sleeping sickness, and Lord Crewe has no doubt that if the work of dealing with other tropical diseases were entrusted to the bureau, it would be carried out with

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