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C.O. 885

22 PUBLIC RECORD OFFICE, LONDON

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194

No. 100.

NYASALAND.

THE SECRETARY OF STATE to THE GOVERNOR.

[Copy to Imperial Bureau of Entomology and Tropical Diseases Bureau, 21st December, 1914. L.F.F.]

(No. 282.)

Downing Street, 18th December, 1914.

SIR,

I HAVE the honour to acknowledge the receipt of your despatch, No. 204, of the 5th of September,* submitting a general outline of the views of your Government. on the questions which arise out of the Report of the Interdepartmental Committee on Sleeping Sickness.†

2. I have forwarded copies of your despatch to the Tropical Diseases Bureau and the Imperial Bureau of Entomology, and I enclose, for your information, copies of letters from Dr. A. G. Bagshawe and Mr. G. A. K. Marshall.

3. On the various questions dealt with in your despatch I have to offer the following observations:

Paragraph 3. Man as a reservoir of the human trypanosome.—Dr. Bagshawe makes several comments on the proposed inoculation experiment, and I concur in the views which he expresses as to staff, equipment required for the work, and the general conduct of this experiment. In present circumstances, however, I fear that the work must be postponed; but I trust that you will not allow the proposal to be lost sight of, and that, when a suitable occasion offers you will be able to recommend for the investigation two Medical Officers who are familiar with experimental work of this kind.

Paragraph 4. Further investigation as to the incrimination of the bushpig and aardoark, &c., as hosts. I have to invite your attention to Dr. Bagshawe's remarks in the last part of paragraph 5 of his letter.§ I agree that this investigation must also stand over until adequate staff is available.

Paragraphs 5, 6. Game destruction in a localised area.-No steps should be taken in respect of the proposed experiment of fencing a given area and of killing off all the game within it.

As regards the minor experiment proposed by Mr. G. Garden, I shall wait until you have received and considered his memorandum on the subject.

Paragraphs 7, 8. Clearing operations. I would again refer you to Dr. Bag- shawe's observations in paragraph 2 of his letter. Subject to the modifications which he suggests, I approve of clearing operations being made experimentally along the two roads proposed, viz., the Domira Bay-Fort Jameson and the Liwonde-Fort Johnston roads; and I should be glad to learn whether you can recommend a suitable officer (or officers) to supervise the work on the lines which Dr. Bagshawe indicates. But before the clearing operations are embarked upon, I must be furnished with an estimate of the expenditure which will be incurred. Obviously it is important at present to keep expenditure at as low a figure as possible, and in submitting the estimate (which might perhaps be done by telegraph to save time) you should indi- cate how the cost can best be met.

Paragraphs 9, 10, 11. Free destruction of game.-In my despatch of the 4th of June I informed you that I was prepared to approve of action being taken by your Government as recommended in paragraph 124 of the Report of the Sleeping Sickness Committee, viz., that until direct means of checking the fly have been discovered, the food supply of the fly and the chances of infection should be lessened in the vicinity of centres of population and trade routes by the removal of wild animals, and that for this purpose freedom should be granted both to settlers and to natives to hunt and destroy the animals within prescribed areas, and subject to prescribed conditions.

I am of the opinion that action on the lines which I have approved should be initiated as soon as possible, and I shall be glad to receive full particulars of the measures which you take.

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I concur generally in the observations made by Dr. Bagshawe and Mr. Marshall on this subject, and I share the view, which I note is also held by your Executive Council, that the destruction should be organised wherever this is practicable. But the arming of natives with weapons of precision for this purpose could not be sanctioned, and I must leave it to you to consider how best the destruction can be controlled. Presumably a large number of areas will have to be thrown open, and of these I wish to receive a list. If organisation of the work is not feasible, then certain selected areas in the vicinity of centres of population and trade routes where fly exists must be thrown open experimentally to settlers and to natives, after suitable conditions have been prescribed by your Government, e.g., as to the extent of areas in which free destruction will be allowed, the submission of accurate returns of animals killed, division of ivory, &c., between the Government and the person who kills. I realise that if this "experimental" destruction has to be allowed, there is a danger that elephants will be killed off too rapidly for the sake of the profit to be derived from their ivory, whilst antelope may be left comparatively untouched. In view of the fact that the latter are known to harbour dangerous trypanosomes whilst the former are at present only under suspicion this should be avoided. Directly, therefore, experience shows that only elephants are being hunted and that the real object of the free destruction of animals in the prescribed areas is thus being defeated, the areas thrown open should be immediately closed again until organised destruction of all animals in the areas can be arranged. In this connection I would call your attention to the value of elephants when domesticated, reference to which is made by Mr. Marshall.

I am addressing you in a separate despatch* as to the form of the annual reports to be rendered of all animals killed in tsetse-fly areas.

Paragraphs 12, 13. Entomological research.—I have recently informed you that no provision need be made on the Nyasaland Estimates for 1915-16 for Mr. W. F. Fiske, as he will be paid from other funds after the 31st of March, 1915.

As you are aware, Mr. Fiske was sent to Uganda, in the first instance, for preli- minary work on Glossina palpalis which it was expected would lead on to work on Glossina morsitans in Nyasaland, and he has been paid from Nyasaland funds as the Entomologist attached to the Royal Society's Sleeping Sickness Commission at Kasu. Having regard to the special arrangements made by the Imperial Bureau of Ento- mology for their Travelling Entomologist, Dr. W. A. Lamborn, to visit Nyasaland instead of East Africa, I see no ground for the complaint made by the Acting Principal Medical Officer at the end of his memorandum.

I have, &c.,

• No. 99,

L. HARCOURT.

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• No. 92.

[Cd. 7349], May, 1914.

Nos. 96 and 97.

§ No. 96. I No. 77.