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DR. H. H. STEWART.

routine Clinical Pathology. We have no Clinical Pathologist just at present in Nigeria.

3302. That is for d'agnosis?-AB an aid diagnosis. We have no Clinical Pathologist, and two or three are very badly required. There are other branches which nt any time we might add as the case demande, but the one we want particularly just now is a Clinical Pathologist or Pathologists.

the Professional

3303. Does that contemplate points? No, sir. The unit of administration at pre- sant is the Political District. Medical Officers aro District Medical Officers, and this does not always, in fact very se dom, tally as regards the Medical requirements. A Medical Officer generally is very often stationed at a place where he is really out of touch with the native population. He does not get tha necessary practice because probably, for certain reasons, he is very often put at the Provincial or the District Ocer's Headquarters.

3904. But surely the Political Officer's station is in touch with them. His district is at the best centre. Surely the station is selected as the best centre of the Native population?-The Political and Medical point of view, I think, are two quite different matters. From the point of view of living near them, quite near your patients and studying disease. it is neces sary for a Medical Officer to go to the place and see things and live on the spot with disease, which is not at all desirable or possible for a Political Officer.

3305. Do you not see disadvantages in two Euro- peans in a district living, say, ten miles apart, with halt a million Natives to look after?-I see some ad- vantages: there may be disadvantages.

3306. From their own standpoint, I should think to be ten miles away from the only European in your district wou'd be rather curious arrangement PYen. from certain points of view. I am only taking purely the Professional outlook. I am particularly referring to the fact that, in questions of this nature, the ques tion of team work and two or three Medical Officers combining, in the future, we would have to regard our stations, where wo placed these Medical Officers, more from the point of view of the population which they were gong directly to serve than as we have done in the past, the purely political aspect.

3307. For team work, if you had a District Medical Oficer here (indicating) and another one hore, you would move them both and put them there? Exact- ly, they would do much more valuable work.

3308. They may be a very long way away from this side of the district, and this side? I grant you, but if we are not to increase the staff, it is useless to talk about team work at all. I am only wasting the Com- mitteo's time if there is no idea to increase the staff, if we are merely to go on as we have been doing, hav ing one Medical Officer in charge of three districts, a total length of 150 miles in a direct line.

3309. That was during the war? Or prasibly in peace time, too.

3310. 150 miles?—Yes.

3911. Where?---From Obudu to Abakaliki.

3313. There is a Medical O.Beer at ca. of those place? There was not during the war.

3313. Not during the war, no; I do not think you neod dilute on conditions which have been created by the war? No; but the important thing is that they should not remain.

3814. Oh! they will not; I think you may be quite sure of that. On the question of study leave at the oad of five years, there is a course prescribed for higher salaries, and after that there is nothing else I think the majority of Med ́eni men reelise, out there, that it would be for their own benefit if there were another course at the end of, say, twelve years, he cause, medicine making the strides it does, it is ex tremely difficult to cope with and keep up-to dat in all departments of Medicine, and also the S n'or ranks hou'd be granted facilities to study hospital administration. I do not mean in thess cases a com pulsory course extruding for two or three months- bus facilities for keeping abreast of modern work by visiting hospitals, and Principal Medical Officers es- pecially, because it would tend to make them more sympathetically inclined towards modern progress and

[Continued.

6.8 #

modern Medicine, if something of that sort could bo done. I do not mean that Principal Medical Officers should have to study medical student for any certificate, but that facili- ties should be granted, and that it should be an unwritten law that from time to time they should make themselves acquainted with modern methods. and that is one of the points which has been brought up by many Medical Officers. I think I dealt with Specialists, but a Specialist should be dobarred from higher administration; it should not be considered he was in any way competing or could in any way become a Principal Medical Officer or a Director. In Specialists, I think we ought to include Sanitary Officers in the Sanitary Departments who are dis- tinctly Specialist Officers in their own line. I know that in the past there have been cases where the promotion of sanitary officers to administrative posts has worked very well. The other day, however, there was a case where a Senior Sanitary Officer was promoted to the equivalent rank of Deputy Principal Medical Officer, which, I may say, did not please a large number of medical officers. It caused a lot of discussion, and there was economic lose to the Government in taking a highly trained sanitary officer and putting him into merely ordinary administrative routine work. If this were done Frequently, medical officers would feel that they should go into the Sanitary Department or Specialist Department, not because they liked the subject of itself, but because they wished to make it a short cut to promotion, and thereby the specialisation would undoubtedly suffer if an officer regarded a sanitary officership or post as merely a short cut to promotion. That is one of the things wo feel, that it should not be regarded as a short cut to promotion. I do not know whether you are considering the ques tion of the Sanitary Department; I do not know whether I nm correct in bringing this before you, but there is a cause of dissatisfaction among tho sanitary officers themselves, that is the title "Bani- tary." It is only a trivial point; they do not like the title "Sanitary." They would prefer a title more indicative of their function. Three senior Banitary officers, the Gold Coast, Southern Nigeria and Sierra Leone have written to me and spoken to me, and asked me if I would express the view that it is a misleading title.

3315. What title would you suggest? Well, they would suggest that Health Officer is really the correct tible.

3916. It might lead to confusion: Health Officer is generally the name attached to the Health Officer at a Port? That is Port Medical Officer of Health, but the sanitary officer is really purely and simply a Health Officer; it is preventive medic.ne.

3317. Public Health Department? Some title which would indicate the work they are doing. Then, there is the question of promotions. The general feeling among the staff is that, as a rule, the Principal Medical Officers are not consulted, nor are their recommendations asked for with regard to pro- motions. I do not mean their recommendations as regards the General Confidential Reports, but ro specific requests are made and no special lists are drawn out for promotions,

3318. How do you know that? I say, Sir, it is the general opinion among the staff.

3319. Is it not the custom of the Principal Medica! Officer to make recommendations to the Governor and the Governor to make re.ommendations to the Sertiry of State?- In a recent instance the Prin cipal Medical Officer expressed surprise that a certa'n officer had been promoted in his Colony.

3320. To another Colony? In his own Colony. which would certainly show that he had not, in that instance, ben consulted.

$321. Promoted in his own Colony; to another post in the same Colony? To another grade in the same Calony. That the feeling cf the stuff that the Principal Medical Officers are not consultel. An obvious thing is that Medical Officers feel that. wever intimate a knowledge the Principal Medica! Officer has of their abil'tics, it does not stand them in very great stend when the question of promotion comes up, and they think the Principal Medical Officers might be asked to forward special lists tu tho Colonial Office whenever a vacancy occurs.

16 February, 1920.]

MINUTES OF EVIDENCE.

DR. H. H. STEWART,

3322. Direct, or

Governor ?-Oh! through the through the usual channels, Sir. Whether it were considered by a Committee or not, would not very much matter, but it would establish a feeling of confidence among the medical officers if that were lone, and that feeling of confidence, I say, at present is lacking. We feel that the Principal Medical Officers are not consulted with regard to furnishing lists of men for promotion, special or otherwise. Then there is the question of non-promotion. If ofcers are unsuited for promotion, for any reason, they should automatically retire on reaching either an age limit to be laid down, or after 18 years' service. I know that that is done in the case of the Army and the Navy; it automatically operates. I believe if an officer dosa not reach a certain rank hy a certain age he automatically retires at a pre- determined age. It would relieve a great deal of rongestion, and I think it would make officers much keener. I would like to speak of the dissatisfaction of the Medical Department in its relation to the Administrative, to the Local Government. There is a feeling among the staff that the Medical Depart- ment is, by the Local Governments, more or less taken for granted. There is no great interest taken in medical work. It would only be wasting your time if I were to explain to you what medical work has done in the past in developing these Colonies, but may 1, just as an illustration, show you exactly what I mean and what a bad impression is created in the minds of the medical men. I have here the Report of Sir Frederick Lugard on the Adminis- tration of Southern Nigeria and Northern, 1912-19, and in it we find 7 pages on native labour, 71 pages on education, on construction generally, on develop- ment of the Colony, a lot of everything except Tropical Medicine in the Medical Department of his Colony. The only reference we find is a short paragraph in 36 which records the appointment of a Director of Medical and Sanitary Services. That is the only thing. I do not think it is necessary for me to emphasise in a report of seven years' work of this nature the unfortunate impression which it makes ou the medical services of the Colony.

3323. Sir James Fowler: Is that an annual report? -No, Sir, this is a special report on the amalgama- tion of the administrations. I wish, particularly, to bring that forward because I think it shows the great misapprehension which exists. I have marked the paragraph. The Medical Department has, I know, been looked upon as a non-revenue earning depart- ment, as purely a apending department, but that is not true in any manner whatsoever. I have here a tablo of estimates for the past seven years, and from it we see that there has been latterly, 1919, no provision commensurate with the extension which we hope will take place in medical equipment and provision gener. ally for treating the natives. To take an instance, the pre-war expenditure on surgical instruments in 1914 was £1,786; in 1910 the provision made was £2,100. If you only take it on the basis of the present value and purchasing power of the sovereign it should be £3,500. It is the same all the way through.

3324. Chairman: Would not one reason for that be the depletion of the medical staff owing to the war; there are fewer medical officers: you would be unable many instruments? No, Bir; the real reason, I know from my own experience at Lagus and the experience of others, is that we have not got the oquipment and the money is not forthcoming by the Government. We could spend three times £3,560 in equipping hospitals as they might be equipped; in equipping technique for modern diagnostic methods. The fact I am particularly drawing attention to is that, in 1919 we had opportunities for getting, and did to a limited extent purchase, the surplus material from the War Office. The nation had a great deal left; we could have got about £4,000 worth more if the money had been forthcoming.

to use 30

3325. Mr. Fiddian: These are the estimates? Drawn up after the Armistice.

3920. Very shortly after? They were drawn up about December, because I saw them in their final shape in December.

3327. Dr. Hood: There was £10,000 worth of stuff bought from surplus Government stores in East

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Africa?—Yes; I had the opportunity of seeing that; most of it was in a condition quite unsuitable for issue; there were no instruments, in that sense, at all. 3928. I disagree with you there; there were some beautiful instruments?-I did not see any.

3329. The head of the Medical Department would send in these estimates not later than September, 1918, would he not ?-Oh, no; they are not made up; I know in Lagos they are not made up.

3330. When does the financial year end, in March or December-December 21st,

3331. Chairman: The Head of the Medical Depart- ment must send them in by September.

3332. Dr. Hood: They generally go in in June; they are generally discussed and fixed up by October? -When I left in November we were still making up the indents for Lagos Hospital for medical apparatus. 3333. Chairman: You order the indents for the next year? For 1920, in December.

3334. The amount that was to be spent by the Colony in 1920 would be fixed not later than Septem- ber or October, 1919?—Yes; the total amount to be spent by the Colony in the next year.

3335. The procedure is for each District Medical Officer to send in his estimates to the Principal Medical Officer ?--Yes.

3396. The Principal Medical Officer revises them, adds together and sends them on to the Government? -Yes.

3337. The Governor settles the total amount to be spent. Then it comes home to the Secretary of State; then it comes back from the Secretary of State either as sent home or revised; then, when you have the Secretary of State's approval, you can indent on the supplies from home?-Exactly, and those indents were sent to the Principal Medical Officer in Decem- ber or the end of November.

3328. Quite so, but they were based on what had been done months before? Yes, and after the war was over no special warrant was given to increase. It is a very easy matter by a special warrant.

Dr. Hood: All the estimates for drugs and food and instruments were exceeded; a special warrant was issued to cover that

3339. Chairman: Will you go on to your next point On the question of native nurses and dis-

pensers, the class of nurse and the pay which is given them I do not think are very satisfactory. I think we ought to have a better class of men and there is a feeling, of course, I know it is an extremely difficult matter, that we ought not to have a nurse at £90 and make him pensionable; it is an extremely difficult problem. The native nurse is, like ourselves, safeguarded by all the Colonial Regulations, and exactly the same Regulations apply to him. If you want to get rid of him for inefficiency, it is practically an impossibility to get rid of a nurse. I suppose it is an inherent drawback. No largo General Hospital at home would tolerate the same condition of service which we have to put up with from these nurses. We get a

nurse on the permanent staff, and no matter how inefficient he is, it is practically im- possible to get rid of him under the existing cir-

cumstances.

3340. Do you know how it works in the Royal Army Medical CorpaP-I am not aware how that difficulty ia got over, but, of course, there they are subject to discipline, and in the Royal Army Medical Corps you are dealing with Europeans and not natives, which I think makes a great deal of difference,

3941. You have inefficient men there as well as elsewhere?The facilities for training nurses and dispensors have not been at all good in the past. The training of Government dispensers is practically left in the hands of the Chief Dispenser, a native whose technique and general knowledge is not, I think, certainly in the case of Nigeria, up to the modern standard.

3342. Would you have local schools for training dispensers? Yes, I think there should be Govern- ment schools, with a European instructor, for train- ing dispensers.

3343. Would you train for a subordinate medical service; what they call apothecaries and assistant surgeons-On the lines of the Indian Medical Staff? 9944. Yes? Well, that question has also been con- sidered. The supply of native medical men just now

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is very limited in a country like Nigeria, and the Colonial Office, of course, might train them, but I think it would only be forcing matters. I spoke ta on Administrative Officer about this question-Dr. Maxwell; 1 had long conversations with him. There is undoubtedly room for a subordinate medical staff in Africa, but I do not think the time has arrived yet to launch that scheme in West Africa.

3345. Then how could you remedy the disadvantages you are complaining of, that some of the dispensers are not efficient, if you cannot get competent dis- pensers? You mean a subordinate medical staff, I take it?

3948. Yee-By getting a better class of dispenser and paying him more.

3947. But are they available; are the well trained natives available?-I think there are plenty of well- trained natives available, but the thing is this: the Government will not pay them the market rates, which are being paid by firms and traders for clerks.

3348. You are speaking of clerks; we are speaking of dispensers; you would take a merchant's clerk and turn him into a dispenser?-I mean from the point of view of the class. We have a boy turned out from King's College and he wants to know what he is to do. There are very few of these boys who will apprentice themselves as d'spensera, because the Government posts as whole are

not attractive enough.

C

3319, Not well enough paid?-Not well enough paid; they far prefer to become clerks in Miller Brothers, or some trading corporation.

3360. Do you not think there is another reason for it; that is that the educated native, because ho in ambitious, hopes when he has gained experience to set up as a trader himself, and training as a dispenser would not fit him for that?A great many of these dispensers in Ingos ultimately become dispensing chemists, of whom there are now quite a number in Lages, and I think, if the Government held out better prospects of promotion and better training far thase, it would encourage a much better type of men to come forward.

8951. Do you know the scale of pay ordinarily offered in a mercantilo office to a clerk, say, a boy from King's College?- A boy from King's College--- I could not say: I have not had any experience of that, but I could find out.

3352. Do they not begin at a very small salary?— They begin at a very small salary, but there is no salary so small as the Government salary. Certainly the Subordinate Medical Service is one which I think should be kept in mind in the general development of the Colony. That finishes what I have got to say as far as the purely professional points are concerned. I was going now to take the question of the conditions of the Service, with a view to its being assimilated to another Colony.

3353. That has already been done in West Africa, has it not; you have a West African Medical Staff? Yes, but I thought perhaps I might be allowed, under that head, to point out to you the shortcomings of that staff, as a stuff.

3364. Yes, certainly; how the scheme might be improved? Yes. At present we have a West African Medical Staff which is only a stati in name really; I mean as far as intercourse with other Colonies is con- rerned. There is no continuation of policy and there is no co-ordination of policy as between the various Colonial Governments. The only means of communi- ention between the Colonies concerned are the Annual Reports; then through the Sanitary and Medical Committee of the Colonial Office, through the Ice Administrations, the Principal Medical Officers' Conference and through private letters. This is r point which have been urging, and wish to urge. that the West African Medical Staff is a staff without a definite head. In the Army and the Navy in each case you have a Director-General who certainly controls the work done in the staff as a whole, and the policy. At present, I think, there is a great deal of overlapping of expenditure and energy in certain directions which would, by the institution of an Inspector-General for the West African Medical Staff. be obviated. At the present moment a Medical Officer may embark on a particular policy or particular

treatment in, let us say, the Gold Coast, and it may be extremely successful. We bave no means of bearing

[Continued.

all that, except probably a year, perhaps two years later, through the Annual Report which may or may not detail those offorts. We feel that if we had a Director-General he would inspect and would generally help in the selection of candidates for the staff.

3353. He would inspect, did you say?-Ho would inspect the Colonies.

8356. Yes? And assist the Colonial Office in forming a definite policy. From the medical point of view you would have a professional man at your head with n professional outlook, which, I think, would be a very groat advantage. I think in West Africa, certainly, the local conditions are extremely favourable for such a policy, because you have compact group of Colonies all more or less within extremely short sail of one another-only a few daya-and you could work such a group of Colonies very advantageously under a Director-General, and he could possibly preside over the Principal Medical Officers' Conference, and he would, moreover, get to know in the course of time every Medical Officer on the staff personally, a thing which no one medical man knows at the present moment, or ca possibly know,

3357. How would you select him; would you select him from the African Medical Staff, or from the Colonial Medical Service, or would you get a pro- fessional man of distinction from England to take the appointment?—I think it would be an advantage, and certainly it would be a great thing, if we could have the highest rank in the West African Medical Staff from the West African Medical Staff. But I am quite certain of this point, that if at the initiation of the Director-General it was found there was not in the Staff any man capable and having the high qualifi cations necessary for such a post, if that were explained and put before the Medical Officers, they would cheerfully acquiesce in any distinguished Officer from some other Service being appointed as their Director-General. I am quite certain they would do

that.

3358. You would make him also an Inspector. General?--Yes, an Inspector-General.

3359. Would you have his headquarters in London, in the Colonial Office, or in one of the Colonies?-His headquarters, should think, ought to be in London.

9380. What period of the year, do you contemplate ho would have to spend over his inspections and be away from London P-I am afraid that is rather a difficult matter of detail.

3361. It is a very important matter if he is to be a Director-General, because whilst he is travelling in the Colony he could hardly direct, could he? He would certainly inspect, and he would be just as efficient as a Director-General as our present Director of Medical Services, for whom uo one acts when he is on leave,

3302. There is somebody acting for him when he is on leave, is there not?-No, sir, it is specially imentioned that no one acts for the Director when ho is on leave.

Dr. Hood: The idea, when he was appointed, was that while he was at home on leave he should also direct.

Chairman: Like the Governor himself governing when he was on leave.

Dr. Hood: Yes.

3363. Chairman: Such an inspection as you con template could hardly take less than six months?- No, Sir, probably not.

3304. He would only be six months in London? He would only necessarily be six months at the Colonial Office, at the same time a good deal could be done by inspecting officers when they are their tour of inspection.

ONL

3365. And what would his relations be to the various Governors; would be send his recommendations through the Governors, or direct to the Secretary of State? In the normal way, he would not interfere with the local administrations at all. He should send everything he would recommend to the Secretary of State; his written reports would be forwarded through the Governors of the inspected Colonies.

3360. That would be rather difficult, would it not? Say, he would go to Sierra Leone, he would inspect that Colony, write his report in that Colony, and

16 February, 1920.]

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DR. H. H. STEWART,

send it to the Governor before he left, I presume?- It is not necessary to send it before he leaves.

9967. He might send it from the Gold Coast P- He might sand it from the Gold Coast, as long as the Governor has a copy of the report, and is allowed to make a comment on it.

3368. It would cause great delay if he sent his report through the Governor to the Colonial Office, would it not?-I cannot see any reason for both. The point of view which we wish to impose is the fact that we have no head; there is nothing to direct the policy, no co-ordination of policy, no continuation of policy.

3369. You have the Advisory Medical Board at the Colonial Office, have you not ?-Yoa, but it is not a head in the sense that it is not even a Commission. There is no executive power. Then I may take ques- tion eight, with regard to the amalgamation of the Service with that of any other Colony. Our feeling, as far as I have been able to ascertain it, is not in favour of any amalgamation of the West African Medical Staff.

3370. Neither now nor in the future?-Nor, as far as we can foresee, in the future.

3371. Not even with East Africa ?-Not even with East Africa, and I think any amalgamation would entail, first of all, to be of any use, a close working, and more

or less identical terms of service and transfers from one Colony to another, or, in the case of amalgamation with East Africa, transfers from East Africa to West and vice vera. Now, any inter- change, I think, would probably only be confined to the more senior branches. It would not be an economic thing to place a medical officer for one tour or two tours in Nigeria, and then transfer him to Uganda, so we would only have the Senior Medical Officers and the Provincial Medical Officers trans- ferred on promotion from one side of Africa to another. The Senior Medical Officers certainly dislike transfer. I know two cases where Senior Medical Officers re- fused transfer to other parts of the world because, when one has been out for 10 or 12 years in a place like Africa, you get more or less used to the con- ditions of service there, you get an attachment, very real to the Colony and to the people there, and it means a big wrench to take yourself to the other side and begin all over again, among many people who you do not know, and strangers and strange customs and manners, and even in the case of East Africs of strange currency. I am quite certain that many medical officers would refuse promotion if it entailed a transfer to East Africa. If that were the case, it would simply mean that the higher offices would suffer because med'eal officers who are eligible and who are desiring promotion, would not accept promotion to go to East Africa. Another point, of course, is that in West Africa at present there are about 215 medical officers to about 65 in East Africa, and that would mean that there would be far more vacances in West Africa in the higher branches than there would be in East Africa, and it would really nean, as one or two of my colleagues have expressed it, that West Africa would become simply a dumping ground for East Africa and East Africans. That is simply their outlook. I have had many letters on this question because the Terms of Reference of the Committee include that, and they are very anxious on this. All the medical officers on the West Coast travel frequently together, and they are more or less known by name and repute, and they would not like to quit a close Service, such as the West African Service, which possesses greater control professionally and otherwise over ita members, than if it were loosely scattered over what is practically a quarter of the globe. I do not think I neod emphasise that point. The next question affecting the medical officer in West Africa is whether sufficient attention has been paid in the past to the conditions under which he lives. In many cases he is isolated in out-stations; he has not the advantages of coming into contact with his colleagues and many things, under those circum- stances, take in his eyes an aspect which probably is quite unwarranted, and there is a movement among

the officers in the West African Medical Service to get over this difficulty by establishing a West African Medical Staff Association which will bind together the medical officers professionally, and will form a body by which the medical officers can communicate with each other in different Colonies on professional matters, and also in which they can discuss matter of importance to the Colony, and to themselves, and through which they can ventilate their various grievances under which they consider, rightly or wrongly, they are labouring. You cannot suppress public opinion, and the thought was that if we could get the Government and the Colonial Office-to recognise such an institution, and enable that body to guide and direct things, and have on it the senior members and the junior members of the Staff, it will help the Medical Staff generally, and the medical profession along the road which it has to travel.

3372. You can hardly avoid isolation, can you?- No,

3373. He is more isolated than the administrative officer, for instance? No, but a professional man, by having such an association which he can get into contact with and in which he might, as a humble beginning, publish a quarterly magazine or pamphlet, of sorts, he would feel he had some association which was uniting him to his profession, because a medical man in a station feels very cut off at present. He bas no association or means by which he can express himself other than through the ordinary channels. 9974. After all, he is in the same position as the administrative officer, or the public works officer, or the forest officer ?—No, Sir, he is a professional

man.

3975. So is the forest officer, and so is the engineer? -To a certain extent, but not quite such a pro fessional man na the medical man.

3376. Not an engineer in the Public Works De- partment or the Marine Department?—A medical man is in a much closer profession than any of those. A medical man is quite different, and we hope to establish such an association, on the lines of the Whitley Report for Civil Servants.

3377. Mr Fiddian: The Whitley Report lays down nothing for the formation of associations; it lays down how associations can be brought into co-opera- tion with the authorities; that is a different thing altogether?-May I read this?

3978. I think the Committee know what a medical officers' association is!-We were trying to found our association on the principle of securing a greater measure of co-operation between the State in its capacity of employer and the general body of Civil Servants.

Chairman: I do not think we need go into the details; you have mentioned your opinion in favour of such an association.

3379. Mr. Fiddian: What do you mean by the Colonial Office recognising it? Surely it is not up to the Colonial Office to recognise it. If an association exista thero is nothing more to be said ?—I think it would be a good thing to ask the recognition of auch by the Colonial Office.

3380. The Secretary of State should. send out a despatch saying that the West African Medical Association w'sh to be formally recognised?-No, the point, of course, which we had to consider was how far such an association would be in confiict with possibly local administration, and how får such an association, as we proposed, would be a good thing. We do not wish the Colonial Office or the local Ad- ministration to imagine it was only a body brought together for the righting of small departmental grievances, or personal things of that sort, it might be necessary to ask probably the Colonial Office to help us considerably if we produced a gazette or magazine, to contribute, to help us, and support us in that way.

3381. You mean the Colonial Government? -The Colonial Governments through the Colonial Office.

3382. It has no money-No, but it has a great say in the allocation of the money.

(The Witness withdrew.) (Adjourned till Monday nest, the 23rd February, 1920, at 3.30 p.m.)