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PUBLIC RECORD OFFICE

Reference :-

C.O. 885

No. 28.

COLONIAL OFFICE to FOREIGN OFFICE.

[Answered by Nos. 33, 47, 57, 64 and 66.]

SIR,

Downing Street, 25 August, 1913 I AM directed by Mr. Secretary Harcourt to request you to inform Secretary Sir E. Grey that the Managing Committee of the Imperial Bureau of Entomology have had under their consideration the question of obtaining full information as to the distribution of Stegomyia fasciata in Eastern Colonial and foreign ports.

2. The desirability of obtaining reliable information on this subject was pointed out in a report recently written by Major S. P. James, I.M.S., on the protection of India from yellow fever in connection with the opening of the Panama Canal. Major James pointed out in his report that we have very little or no knowledge, not only upon the subject of a sure method of diagnosing yellow fever, but upon such subjects as the presence or absence, and distribution of Stegomyia fasciata in Eastern Colonial and other ports, the problem whether the very widely distributed and abundant species, Stegomyia scutellaris, carries the disease or not, the bionomics of those species, and many other matters of prime importance in connection with the etiology and prevention of yellow fever. Consequently, should occasion arise to deal with an irruption of yellow fever in a new territory, this want of knowledge would greatly hamper and delay efficient and enlightened action on the part of the authorities concerned.

3. The Bureau of Entomology, recognising the importance of the subject, has undertaken to collect information as to the distribution of stegomyia in the countries which are likely to provide ports of call for vessels plying between Panama and India. As a preliminary measure, the Committee have asked that the Bureau may be furnished (1) with all information available as to the distribution of mosquitoes generally, and of stegomyia in particular, in the Straits Settlements, Federated Malay States, Borneo, Hong Kong, Papua, Fiji, and the Western Pacific, and the French, German, Japanese, American, and Dutch possessions in the Far East and the Pacific, and (2) with collections of mosquitoes from these localities, so that the question of sending out an entomologist specially to collect information in those places from which none can now be obtained may be considered at a later date in the light of the knowledge thus gained.

4. The Colonial authorities responsible for the administration of the British possessions enumerated in the last paragraph are being requested to arrange for the Bureau to be supplied, as soon as practicable, with all the information available as to the distribution of mosquitoes, and in particular of stegomyia, in those countries, and for collections of mosquitoes to be sent to the Director of the Bureau at the British Museum (Natural History), Cromwell Road, London, S.W. Any such collec- tions will be identified, and named specimens returned, if desired, for the use of the Collector and for the Medical or other Departments to which they would be of value.

5. Mr. Harcourt would be glad if Sir E. Grey could see his way to approach the French, German, Japanese, American, and Dutch Governments with a similar request in respect of their territories in the Far East and in the Pacific. He has little doubt that their sympathies will be easily enlisted in this enquiry when the importance of it is impressed upon them, seeing that all these countries will be vitally concerned in the prevention of the introduction and spread of yellow fever in their possessions in the East. The Bureau will, of course, be prepared to supply these Governments in return with a summary of all the information which is obtained, and any collections of mosquitoes forwarded to the Bureau from foreign countries will be dealt with in the same way as those received from British possessions.

I am, &c.,

HENRY LAMBERT,

for the Under-Secretary of State.

No. 29.

WESTERN AUSTRALIA.

THE GOVERNOR to THE SECRETARY OF STATı

(Received 10.20 a.m., 27th August, 1913.)

TELEGRAM.

[Answered by No. 40.]

Your despatch of 28th March, No. 43.* My Ministers agree to proposal.— BARRON.

26104

SIR,

No. 30.

THE SECRETARY OF STATE to THE GOVERNORS. (Southern Nigeria. No. 599.) (Gold Coast. No. 573.)

(Sierra Leone. No. 329.) (Gambia. No. 247.)

[Answered by Nos. 35, 43, 44, 48, and 59.]

Downing Street, 29 August, 1913. I HAVE the honour to refer to my predecessor's despatch, No. [366] [186][155] [51], of the 23rd of April, 1909,† on the subject of entomological investigation in its relation to the diseases of men and animals and plants in the British Colonies and Protectorates.

2. The grants which were made to the Entomological Research Committee by the Imperial Government on behalf of the Exchequer-aided Protectorates in Tropical Africa and by the West African Colonies were promised in 1909-10 for five years, and the time has now come to consider whether or not they should be renewed for a further period of the same duration. I have no hesitation in endorsing the recom- mendation of the Committee that this should be done, and I am asking the Lords Commissioners of the Treasury to renew the grant from Imperial funds accordingly, on the same condition as before, viz., that the self-supporting West African Colonies will contribute £1,000 between them for five more years. I trust that you will find yourself in agreement with me in thinking that the Committee has fully justified the hopes which were entertained of it by Lord Crewe when he founded it, and that your Government will be prepared to continue its contribution of [£500] [£350] [£100] [£50] for a further period of five years from 1914-15 to 1918-19. [To Southern Nigeria only: As regards the contribution of £500 hitherto made by Southern Nigeria, it seems to me desirable that when Northern and Southern Nigeria are amalgamated this sum should be provided as the contribution of Nigeria as a whole.]

3. It is not necessary for me to detail the work which the Committee has carried out during the comparatively short time that it has been in existence, as you are doubtless already well aware of the results of its activities, but I enclose for reference a copy of the report which was presented to Parliament in November, 1912: this report summarises the progress made since the foundation of the Committee in June, 1909.

4. I take this opportunity of informing you that since the beginning of this year the Entomological Research Committee has been incorporated for all practical purposes in the larger organisation known as the Imperial Bureau of Entomology, the general objects of which will be found set forth in paragraph 15 of the enclosed report, and if the grants for Tropical African research are renewed, it is proposed that the use of the name Entomological Research Committee shall be definitely dropped, as its continuation is only likely to lead to confusion. The Managing Committee of the Bureau is identical with the Committee as originally constituted, except that Professor Maxwell Lefroy, F.Z.S., late Imperial Entomologist to the Government of India, has been appointed to it since he returned to permanent employment in this country. Mr. G. A. K. Marshall, who was Scientific Secretary of the Entomological Research Committee, has heen appointed Director of the Bureau. The Head Office is the same as that used by the Committee, at the British Museum (Natural History), South Kensington, but it has been necessary to rent a

• No. 139 in Miscellaneous No. 271. † No. 8 in Miscellaneous No. 231. ‡ [Ca. 6429].

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