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PUBLIC RECORD OFFICE

Reference :-

C.O. 885

22 PUBLIC RECORD OFFICE, LONDON

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

89721

(No, 204.)

172

No. 92.

NYASALAND.

THE GOVERNOR to THE SECRETARY OF STATE.

(Received 14th October, 1914.)

Government House, Zomba, Nyasaland Protectorate,

5th September, 1914. SIR,

YOUR despatch, No. 150, of the 4th of June last, dealing with questions which arise out of the Report of the Inter-departmental Committee on Sleeping Sickness,† arrived while I was absent on tour, and since my return affairs connected with the war have so completely engrossed the time and attention of this Government that even now, without further investigation in many directions, I am unable to lay before you very concrete proposals. I have, however, obtained the views of the Acting Principal Medical Officer and certain members of his staff who have been connected with sleeping sickness work in the Protectorate, copies of which I attach. 2. I have also discussed in Executive Council the various points touched on in your despatch, and it will be convenient if I submit at once for your consideration a general outline of the views of this Government.

3. Man as a reservoir of the human trypanosome (paragraph 3).-It is, I think, a matter for some regret that so important a question did not form the subject of investigation by Sir David Bruce's Commission while it was at work in the Protec- torate. Steps will be taken to detail some of the medical staff for this work so soon as their services can be made available, but at the present juncture, with so many of their number attached to the Field Force operating on the northern border, I am constrained to postpone the investigation,

4. Further investigation as to the incrimination of the bush pig and aardvark, &c., as hosts (paragraph 4).—This also appears to have been a question essentially appropriate to the late Commission. The aardvark is a nocturnal animal, very, difficult to procure, but the investigation may, I think, be delegated to the staff appointed to carry out the experiments referred to in paragraph 3.

5. Game destruction in a localised area (paragraph 5).—My Government is of opinion that the proposed experiment of fencing a given area and of killing off the game within it could not be undertaken and carried through with all those guarantees required to avoid fallacies at a cost which would be within either the figure quoted by the Committee or the means of this Protectorate, and they concur with the view expressed in your despatch that, if not abandoned altogether, the experiment should, for the present, remain in abeyance.

6. I summoned Mr. Gården before the Executive Council for a fuller explana- tion of the proposal he submitted to the Committee (paragraph 90 (6) of the report). It is a question if the scheme he adumbrates, as I understand it, will yield any practical result. Transport cattle in considerable numbers pass daily along the Blantyre-Zomba Road, outspanning at well-defined spots, and there are many private herds of cattle grazing all over the Shire Highlands on well-known pasture grounds. Mr. Garden will, however, furnish a memorandum more completely setting out his suggestion, its object, and probable cost.

7. Clearing operations (paragraph 6).—The importance of this measure has been long recognised here, and active measures have already been taken and are proceeding in the fly-infected areas to concentrate the villages, to make extensive clearings around them, and to induce the inhabitants to have recourse as little as possible to the bush and wooded areas. The Medical Officers appear to be unanimous in their opinions as to the helpfulness of this measure in the protection of the people. The clearing of the roads to a distance of half a mile on each side, as suggested in the report, is a much more difficult problem to handle. While something may be attempted along the main trunk roads, it must be remembered that there is much intercourse between the villages over simple village tracks, and it would prove a herculean task to effect any such clearing as is suggested in respect of them, and to keep them permanently cleared. Then, too, the denudation of all forest growth over such extensive areas as would be involved must necessarily be attended with

↑ [Cd. 7349] May, 1914.

• No. 77.

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important and unfavourable climatic results, and a risk to a water supply already precarious in many parts of the Protectorate. Not the least important consideration is that of outlay involved. While, so far, in our efforts to make clearings around villages we have succeeded in inducing the natives to give their labour free, that for clearing the roads would have to be paid for. In addition to the cost of original clearing would be the annual one of maintaining the clearings, not a simple matter in a tropical country with a heavy rainfall.

8. While, however, I am constrained to point out some of the difficulties to be encountered, I think that something may be done experimentally on a somewhat smaller scale than the Committee recommend. I would, in the first place, select two main roads, and probably the most suitable would be the Domira Bay-Fort Jameson Road and the Fort Johnston-Liwonde Road, both of which pass through fly areas and are important communications, I will, however, in the first place, so soon as officers can be made available for the purpose, have an estimate made of the extent of clearing to be undertaken, and the probable cost. I should be inclined to reduce the width of the belt to be cleared to 200 or 300 yards on each side of the road. This can be enlarged thereafter if the clearing made proves insufficient to keep the fly off the road.

9. The free destruction of game (paragraph 7).-—The Executive Council draws attention to the previous experiments undertaken in this direction, and their failure where it had been left to the natives with native methods of hunting and trapping and hative weapons. If anything further is attempted the Council is of opinion that the measures must be more completely organised under responsible officers. When questioning the natives during my tour on the poor results yielded by their efforts they invariably replied that if they had had the guns which were taken from them in the early days of the British administration of the Protectorate they would have shown better results. I have no doubt that it would have been so, but the arming with rifles of a large body of natives calls for careful consideration, and it would be advisable, I think, to associate with the work some disciplined troops under their officers. This is not practicable at the present moment.

10. As you are aware, Dr. Prentice, of the Livingstonia Mission at Kasungu, has ever taken a leading part in the crusade for the destruction or removal of the wild fauna. However much obsessed by this idea he may be, one is convinced of his earnestness of purpose. I had the opportunity of hearing his views directly and in full during my tour, and I enclose a memorandum he has been good enough to prepare for me on the inroads of the tsetse fly from the Rhodesian border down the Dwangwa and Lingadzi Rivers in the Marimba District. While not calling in question in any way his information, this incursion has not, so far as I am aware, been investi- gated by any Government officer. This shall be done as quickly as possible. The experiment of killing or driving back the game in the area referred to might be undertaken, and I am confident that Dr. Prentice would take an active part in it, and exercise his powerful influence with the natives in making the experiment & success if it be possible. Another area to be taken up, although the amount of game there is not large, might be the Shire Highlands between Zomba and Blantyre, and this could be arranged at the same time and under the same direction as any experiments undertaken on Mr. Garden's proposals, paragraph 6 above.

As to

11. In reply to the enquiry in the concluding passage of paragraph 7 of your despatch, the free destruction of game is permitted in the proclaimed sleeping sick- ness area of the Dowa District, and I attach a map* indicating this area. conditions to be prescribed in connection with free shooting, Dr. Prentice makes the suggestion that, with a free licence to shoot and half-and-half shares with the Govern- ment in the ivory obtained, European hunters would be readily found. I am disposed to recommend the proposal to your consideration. In the case of the natives--and I assume their co-operation will, with Dr. Prentice's influence and that of the Resident, be readily given-no such arrangement is necessary. They will have the meat of the animals killed, and their services need not be remunerated, as in a large degree the work will be undertaken in their own behalf, the preservation of their cattle from the fly and wild animals and their crops from depredation.

12. Entomological research (paragraph 8).—I concur entirely in the proposed fuller investigation into the bionomics of the Glossinu morsitans and others of the tsetse fly family, and more particularly whether direct attack on the fly is likely to

* Not reproduced.