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PUBLIC

RECORD OFFICE

Reference :-

wwwm C.O. 885

22 PUBLIC RECORD OFFICE, LONDON

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

SIR,

(No. 88. Africa.)

13-4

Enclosure in No. 67.

Foreign Office, December 29th, 1913. WITH reference to your despatch, No. 60, Africa, of the 11th instant, respect- ing the proposed meeting of an International Commission to discuss administrative measures in connexion with the protection of elephants and rhinoceros, I have to inform Your Excellency that His Majesty's Government consider that it would not be advisable to extend the scope of the Commission's labours to countries outside

Africa.

In the event of the proposal for such an extension being adopted, it would be necessary to postpone the meeting of the Commission pending the collection of infor- mation from other countries and the appointment of suitable representatives, and it would, therefore, appear to be much preferable, from a practical point of view, that the enquiries and recommendations of the Commission should be limited to African territories.

I should, therefore, be glad if Your Excellency would ascertain as soon as possible whether the French Government are willing to take part in a Conference limited to Africa. As soon as they have expressed their willingness to do so invitations to the other Powers interested will be issued immediately.

I am, &c.,

W. LANGLEY. (For the Secretary of State.)

Sir F. Bertie, G.C.B., G.C.M.G.,

&c., &c., &c.

His Excellency the Right Honourable

985

SIR,

No. 68.

UGANDA.

THE TROPICAL DISEASES BUREAU to COLONIAL OFFICE.

(Received 8th January, 1914.)

[Copy to Governor, Uganda, 21 January, 1914. No. 28. L.F.]

Tropical Diseases Bureau,

Imperial Institute, London, S. W., January 7th, 1914.

I HAVE the honour to acknowledge the receipt of your letter of December 27th (42521/13)* forwarding a despatch,† with its enclosures, from the Government of Uganda on the subject of Miss Robertson's investigations in the Bunyoro district of the Protectorate.

1. Miss Robertson's observations show a very serious state of affairs with regard to infection of domestic cattle over a large area, and the recommendations inade by her on page 7 [107] seem well calculated to check the spread of the disease. The clearing of the bush on each side of the motor road for such width as is found necessary is obviously essential, unless this measure should prove more expensive than the diversion of the road. Was this line of route reported on by a Medical Officer before the road was made? I agree that the protection of game in a morsitans area on a main road is an obviously suicidal measure,' even if it is to be used for nothing but motor traffic, for in the present state of our knowledge it would be unsafe to assume that any species of tsetse fly, or of trypanosomes of the

brucei group," is innocuous to man.

4.

2. Miss Robertson in several places assumes that the game in certain fly areas is not infected with trypanosomes pathogenic to stock, viz., at Butiaba, on Lake Albert. I am not aware that antelopes in morsitans areas have ever been examined and found free from such trypanosomes, and doubt whether the assumption that they are thus free is justified unless an examination has been made. The fact of cattle remaining healthy there may be explained in some other way, e.g., Todd con- cluded from his extensive observations in Belgian Congo that "it is not unreason- able to suppose that, like the game, domesticated animals may thrive in spite of actual trypanosome infection and exposure to constant re-infection."

• L.F.

↑ No. 63.

135

4. With regard to trypanosomiasis in man, I am inclined to think that both Miss Robertson and Dr. Wiggins are unduly pessimistic. Miss Robertson writes in her summary:

All types of the gambiense group (i.e., T. gambiense, T. brucei, and T. rhodesiense) introduced into any part of this country

will ultimately cause a very serious loss to human life in the fly-belts around Masindi." “T. rhodesiense is already present in German East Africa and morsitans extends practically from the German border to the Northern Province."

Dr. Wiggins writes that Kleine and Fischer state that G. morsitans is better adapted to transmit T. gambiense than is G. palpalis

5 T. gambiense was introduced into Bunyoro ten years ago or more, and between 1903 and 1909 many infected natives must have passed through the Bunyoro and Buruli morsitans areas, for here ran a main trade-route between the Victoria Nyanza and the Nile District. In 1905 palpalis was infected at the Nile crossing between Bunyoro and the Nile Province, used by large numbers of natives, and before this date Dr. Pooley had collected several cases at Hoima. Dr. Hodges would cor- roborate these statements and add other evidence to the same effect from his greater knowledge. No cases of human trypanosomiasis, however, have ever been shown to originate in morsitans areas in the Uganda Protectorate, nor have such cases been detected anywhere in Tropical Africa north of 10° S. T. rhodesiense has been found in man on the southern border of German East Africa, which marches with Portuguese East Africa, but this is some 700 miles from the Victoria Nyanza 'and over 800 miles in a direct line from Entebbe. Until the Germans find cases of human infection much to the north of this there seems to be little cause for anxiety in Uganda.

6. Certainly trypanosomes morphologically resembling T. rhodesiense have been found in animals in British East Africa and in the Western Province of Uganda, but there is no evidence whatever that these are capable of infecting man. Such trypanosomes have been found also in Nigeria and Upper Egypt, and in a strain from a horse infected with dourine in Algeria, where no tsetse of any kind exists. If one were to act on the assumption that all such trypanosomes are patho- genic to man it would be necessary to spend enormous sums on precautionary

measures.

7. With regard to Dr. Wiggins's statement I cannot find that Kleine and Fischer ever wrote what is imputed to them, and, in any case, the experiments were laboratory experiments which show what might, rather than what does, occur in nature. Laboratory experiments appear to prove that any species of tsetse can transmit any trypanosome. Observations in nature show that this is by no means the case.

8. On page 18 [118] of the report, paragraph 14, Dr. Wiggins writes: "A human trypanosome other than gambiense, probably rhodesiense, has been found in the Eastern Province, in Buganda Kingdom, in Bunyoro, and in Ankole." Such remarkable discoveries call for more than two lines of print. Can this be correct?

9. Although I do not think that the danger of morsitans-spread human try- panosomiasis in Uganda is as pressing as these reports would appear to show, I am in favour in the main of the measures advised by Dr. Wiggins, and I that

agree all those named in paragraph 3 should be carried out. Dr. Wiggins is best qualified to say how this should be done. The knowledge and security gained will amply compensate the expenditure. I agree, too, that it is a bad as well as a poor policy to shirk the application of the knowledge already obtained and to evacuate fly- infested areas. A relaxation of the game laws would certainly seem advisable in the morsitans area; indeed, I think that in all tsetse-infested districts of Tropical Africa the game laws should be relaxed; to what extent is a matter for the local Administration. Officers should be detailed to watch and report the results so that species be exterminated. As regards trypanosomiasis of cattle, obviously much may be done by instructing the chiefs where to keep their beasts.

33489

I have, &c.,

ARTHUR G. BAGSHAWE,

Director.

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