CO885-(21-23) — Page 605

PUBLIC RECORD OFFICE

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Reference :-

C.O. 885

22 PUBLIC RECORD OFFICE, LONDON

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

6.

190

It may be said now with some degree of certainty that the destruction of elephants alone is not likely to affect in any way the distribution of tsetse-flies. It is difficult to see why more antelopes, pigs, &c., which are the really important animals, are likely to be shot as a result of throwing elephants open also; whereas if the antelopes are effectively eradicated, the elephants will certainly be driven from the district.

7. The wholesale destruction of elephants is especially to be deprecated now that the Belgians have conclusively proved that they can be successfully tamed and utilised for draught, &c.

50317

I have, &c.,

No. 98.

GUY A. K. MARSHALL,

FOREIGN OFFICE to COLONIAL OFFICE.

(Received 17 December, 1914.)

Director.

[Copies to Tropical Diseases Bureau and Imperial Bureau of Entomology, 7th January, 1915. L.F.F.]

The Under-Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs presents his compliments to the Under-Secretary of State for the Colonies, and, by direction of the Secretary of State, transmits herewith copies of a despatch from Mr. Cheetham, Cairo, dated November 27th, 1914, on the subject of the Report of the Interdepartmental Com- mittee on Sleeping Sickness.

Reference to previous correspondence: Letter to Foreign Office, June 5, 1914.* Foreign Office,

December 16, 1914.

(No. 185.) SIR,

Enclosure in No. 98.

Cairo, November 27th, 1914. WITH reference to your despatch, No. 180, of June 12th last, forwarding, for transmission to Khartoum, the report of the Interdepartmental Committee on Sleep- ing Sickness, I have the honour to transmit to you herewith the observations of the Sudan Sleeping Sickness Commission, which I have received from Sir F. Wingate.

I have, &c.,

The Right Honourable

Sir Edward Grey, Bart., K.G., M.P.,

&c.,

&c.,

&c.

MILNE CHEETHAM.

EXTRACT FROM THE 19TH MEETING of the Sudan SLEEPING SICKNESS COMMISSION, HELD 21ST SEPTEMBER, 1914.

3.

The Report of the Interdepartmental Committee on Sleeping Sickness, Colonial

Office.

The Report of the Interdepartmental Committee on Sleeping Sickness, Foreign Office despatch, No. 180, was submitted to the meeting.

The Commission, having considered the various points raised in the Foreign Office despatch, agreed that—

1. (a) With reference to paragraph 3 (a), inasmuch as the Nyasaland and Rhodesian form of sleeping sickness has not yet been found in the Sudan, the question of examining a large number of healthy natives in a morsitans area, to ascertain whether man does or does not form a reservoir of the human trypanosomes, is not applicable to the Sudan.

• No. 82.

191

(b) It should be pointed out that an examination of natives in a morsitans area in the Sudan where there is a form of sleeping sickness has been carried out in the Western Bahr-el-Ghazal, chiefly by palpation, 6,502 natives having been examined by Captain C. M. Drew, R.A.M.C., in 1913, and ten cases of sleeping sickness found.

(c) But that, inasmuch as from evidence given before the Interdepartmental Committee enlargement of glands is not such an outstanding feature of Rhodesian disease as it is of the Uganda form, it would be advisable to carry out the suggested examination of natives by the direct method and by inoculation in the Western Bahr-el-Ghazal, provided that the investigation of the trypanosome from the Western Bahr-el-Ghazal, now being carried out by Dr. Chalmers, Director, Wellcome Tropical Research Laboratories, Khartoum, renders such a course likely to be profitable. (d) They wish to place on record that, clinically, the type of the disease in the Western Bahr-el-Ghazal is not like the Rhodesian type, and also that G. palpalis does occur in the Western Bahr-el-Ghazal, and, further, that at present the small staff and finances available almost preclude the procedure.

Possibly the only place where there is a purely morsitans area is in the Koalib Hills, in the Nub-Mountains Province (Central Sudan), but there is no sleeping sickness in this area, so far as is known, but the area has never been investigated.

2. With reference to paragraph 4, the ". aardvark " does not occur in sleeping sickness areas in the Sudan so far as is known. Arrangements, however, as yet not very successful, have been made to obtain blood slides from numerous animals in sleeping sickness areas.

3. With reference to paragraph 5, the Commission note that the proposed experiment of game destruction in a definite area should be allowed to remain in abeyance for the present.

4. With reference to paragraph 6, the Commission desire to place on record that clearing has been carried out in sleeping sickness areas in the Sudan for four All chiefs are advised to clear their years, and that it is undoubtedly successful. watering places,, fords, &c., and Government roads are kept cleared and also the vicinities of stations and sleeping sickness camps.

5. With reference to paragraph 7, the Commission are not prepared to recom- mend the destruction of game in the neighbourhood of stations, for the following

reasons:-

(a) In the main sleeping sickness areas there is very little game.

(b) There is no evidence that game in the Sudan is extensively infected with

trypanosomes,

(c) There is up till now no evidence of sleeping sickness of the Rhodesian

type occurring in the Sudan.

(d) In regions where the fly is prevalent there are no white settlers.

6. With reference to paragraph 8, the Commission agree that further know- ledge of the bionomics of the tsetse fly is very desirable, but inasmuch as the finances of the Sudan Government permit the employment of one entomologist only, whose services are practically employed in entomological research connected with agricul- ture, they regret they do not see their way to assist.

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SIR,

No. 99.

THE SECRETARY OF STATE to THE GOVERNORS.

(East Africa Protectorate. No. 1072.)

(Uganda Protectorate. No. 485.) (Nyasaland. No. 278.)

Downing Street, 16 December, 1914.

WITH reference to paragraph 7 of my despatch of the 4th of June last, No. [535], [237], [150],* I have the honour to inform you that the Committee which

• No. 77.

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