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I have now carefully considered the report, and I think that it would be inadvisable to support it either financially or otherwise.

It appears from Sir H. J. Read's letter that the action which is now being taken by the Colonial Office is the result (delayed by the War) of the report of the Earl of Desart's Committee, the terms of reference of which were:-

To report :-

1. Upon the present knowledge available on the questions of the parts played by wild animals and tsetse flies in Africa in the maintenance and spread of trypanosome infections of man and stock.

2. Whether it is necessary and feasible to carry out an experiment of game destruction in a localized area in order to gain further knowledge on these questions, and, if so, to decide the locality, probable cost, and other details of such an experiment, and to provide a scheme for its conduct.

3. Whether it is advisable to attempt the extermination of wild animals, either generally or locally, with a view of checking the trypanosome diseases of man and stock.

4. Whether any other measures should be taken in order to obtain means of controlling these diseases.

It will thus be seen that the main problem before this Committee was the tsetse- game-trypanosome inter-relationship. The recommendations of the Committee on this question are contained in paragraphs 132-134 of its report, and are to the effect that an experiment for the removal of wild animals from a selected area should be undertaken, if possible, as there is sufficient to justify the expectation of useful results.

The report of the Glossina Sub-Committee completely ignores this, which, in iny opinion, is the main direction which future research should take, and confines itself to enumerating a list of problems mainly connected with the bionomics of Glossina, and to making recommendations with regard to the machinery by which it is proposed that these problems should be investigated. Whether the line of action recommended in this report would lead eventually to the obtaining of information which would enable us to formulate a practical scheme for dealing with the problem of trypanosomiasis of man and domestic stock is a matter of doubt. It is, however, quite obvious that the solution of many of the problems set forth would require years of intensive work, and equally obvious that the measures recommended for the solution are wholly inadequate.

Consideration of the machinery by which this Sub-Committee proposes to investigate the problems which it considers require investigation suggests to me that they have no clear conception of the nature of the problem.

Many of the questions could not possibly be answered by the type of investi- gation proposed. The work is to be split up amongst six commissions operating in different parts of Africa, and the sum of £50,000 has been mentioned as the cost of such commissions over a period of five years. This sum, i.e., £10,000 per annum, or £1,700 per annum per commission, is to provide for the salaries, transport, camps, labour, equipment, and leave of the personnel of the commission itself. There will be no balance for the purposes of experiment and investigation, to say nothing of the many other incidental expenses inseparable from such undertakings, and the possibility of any experimental work requiring the employment of labour is com- pletely excluded. It also limits, for the time being, the personnel to entomologists, which is a mistake, and, further, should it be possible to find a sufficient number of skilled entomologists having a practical knowledge of Glossina, which is extremely doubtful, the work of such small commissions will be handicapped in a number of ways, such as interruptions due to such exigencies as illness and leave. There will be isolation, and consequently stagnation and, as at present intended, the work of those in the field will be directed from London and their results correlated there, a method whch has nothing to recommend it.

The scheme proposed is not a logical sequence of the results of former work. but more in the nature of a restart from the beginning and is not likely, in my opinion, to advance the solution of the problem in any way.

14, St. James's Place, S.W.,

7th August, 1920.

A. MAY

Principal Medical Officer, Northern Rhodesia.

20928

No. 133.

MINUTES OF THE THIRD MEETING OF THE GLOSSINA SUB-COM- MITTEE OF THE IMPERIAL BUREAU OF ENTOMOLOGY, held at the COLONIAL OFFICE ON 21ST APRIL, 1921.

Present:

SIR H. READ (Chairman).

MAJOR AUSTEN.

DR. BAGSHAWE.

SIR S. HARMER.

SIR S. STOCKMAN.

DR. MARSHALL.

DR. NEAVE.

MR. PARKINSON (Secretary).

1. THE minutes of the Second Meeting* of the Sub-Committee were

approved.

2. The Sub-Committee had under consideration copies of correspondence with the Government of the Union of South Africa, the Governments of the East and West African Dependencies, the British South Africa Company, and the Foreign Office relative to the proposals for tsetse-fly investigations in Africa.

Dr. Marshall submitted correspondence which he had had on the subject with Mr. Lounsbury relating particularly to the special investigation in Zululand already started by the Government of the Union of South Africa, and to the question of appointing one man to assume general direction of the work contemplated by the Sub-Committee, who would be resident in Africa and would himself take part in the investigation.

After examining the position from various points of view, the Sub-Committee arrived at the following conclusions:-

(i) A comprehensive statement of the work contemplated should be prepared on the lines of the report previously drawn up together with a table giving the estimated expenditure under each experimental station as well as overhead charges, for consideration at the Conference with representatives of the Rockefeller Institute at the Colonial Office in June.

(ii) Meanwhile, the preliminary work begun by Mr. Swynnerton in the Tanganyika Territory should be continued, and steps taken to ascertain whether preliminary work might not be started in Nigeria as recommended in the despatcht on the subject from the Government of Nigeria.

(iii) For any general scheme of investigation throughout Africa, the appointment of one well-qualified man as Director or Inspector-General was necessary, in order to secure co-operation and co-ordination; but this work could not be combined with the actual work of investigation, as the whole time of the Director or Inspector-General would be occupied in visiting in turn the experimental stations in Africa and reporting to the Bureau.

(iv) The men appointed for the work of investigation must be offered good salaries, and in view of the recognized danger of the work they should be insured at the expense of the Bureau.

(v) No expenditure could be incurred by the Bureau out of its normal revenues in respect of the investigation.

3. The following action arising out of these conclusions was approved:-

(i) Dr. Marshall and Dr. Bagshawe to prepare a statement and estimate for consideration of the Sub-Committee, in readiness for the Conference with representatives of the Rockefeller Institute.

4.

(ii) The Secretary to arrange for Sir Hugh Clifford and Dr. W. B. Johnson to discuss with Dr. Marshall and other members of the Sub-Com- mittee the question of starting preliminary work in Nigeria at once.

As regards the appointment of a Director or Inspector-General, the Sub- Committee were unanimously of the opinion that Dr. Neave would be admirably qualified for the work, if he were willing to undertake it.

Dr. Neave desired time to think the matter over.

* No. 99.

+ No. 118.

PUBLIC RECORD OFFICE

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