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PUBLIC RECORD

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OFFICE

Reference :-

mwimmmmiinu. CO, 885

9 PUBLIC RECORD OFFICE, LONDON

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

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Government, informing us that we shall receive from that Government a sum of £1,000 as a contribution towards the expenses of the investigations into the best means of combating the sleeping sickness.

Enclosure in No. 26.

I have, &c.,

E. E. BLAKE.

FINANCIAL ADVISER TO THE EGYPTIAN GOVERNMENT to the CROWN AGENTS.

Travellers' Club, Pall Mall, S.W., July 28, 1905.

GENTLEMEN,

I HAVE to-day sent instructions to the Ministry of Finance at Cairo to pay to you the sum of £1,000 (one thousand pounds sterling) being a contribution from the Egyptian Government towards the expenses of the investigations now being carried on in Uganda and elsewhere under the direction of the Colonial Office into the best means of combating the sleeping sickness.

You will receive the money as soon as the necessary formalities have been dis- charged.

I have written officially to the Colonial Office in this sense.

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Yours, &c.,

VINCENT CORBETT,

Financial Adviser to the Egyptian Government.

No. 27.

UGANDA

COMMISSIONER SADLER to MR. LYTTELTON. (Received 1.19 p.m., August 14, 1905.) TELEGRAM.

No. 25. There is £14,710 available from last year after meeting all liabilities. No portion of £1,000 epidemics earmarked, but £655 has already been spent. Principal Medical Officer does not anticipate any possible saving under this head. I have (had) dealt with small-pox as well as sleeping sickness.

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SIR,

No. 28.

COLONIAL OFFICE to TREASURY.

[Copy to Local Government Board, August 23, 1905. L.F.] [Answered by No. 33.]

Downing Street, August 18, 1905.

I AM directed by Mr. Secretary Lyttelton to transmit to you, to be laid before the Lords Commissioners of the Treasury with reference to your letter of the 12th of May, the accompanying copy of further correspondence relating to sleeping- sickness in Uganda.

2. Their Lordships will see that the gravity of the position disclosed in the former papers sent from this Department has not diminished. It is now thoroughly established that Europeans are susceptible to the disease, and two Uganda officials have been recently invalided to this country, of whom one is suspected to be, and the other undoubtedly is, suffering from the disease.

3. With regard to the points to which their Lordships call attention in their letter, I am to state that the trained entomologist, Professor Minchin, has been appointed at a salary of £60 a month, with a subsistence allowance of Rs. 9 a day while in the Protectorate, and that he has been allowed a laboratory assistant with a salary of 30s. a week and a subsistence allowance of Rs. 5 a day while in the Protectorate.

No. 11.

† Nos. 21, 19, 22, 24, 23 and 27.

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4. The Commissioner estimates at £6,950 the cost of the extended scheme of investigation if the lines he has sketched out are approved. £2,200, however, of the total amount represents the cost of moving the laboratory from Entebbe to one of the islands in Lake Victoria. Mr. Lyttelton understands that the Royal Society are opposed to the removal of the laboratory from its present position, but he is consulting them on the subject, and will address a further communication to their Lordships when a reply has been received. In the meantime he considers it a matter of great importance to proceed with the selection of the six additional medical officers, who will be required in any case.

5. With regard to the period for which these officers will be required, it is impossible to forecast what progress will be made with the investigations, but it is understood from the Royal Society that it will be necessary to employ them for not less than three years, if any useful results are to be obtained.

6. Their Lordships will see that the Egyptian Government have undertaken to contribute a sum of £1,000 for the present year towards the cost of the extended investigations and, should the funds at the disposal of that Government admit, to continue the contribution in 1906 and 1907. As the Soudan Government are already spending a sum of more than £3,000 a year on research work, of which the greater part is devoted to the investigation sleeping-sickness, and as Egypt, does not appear at present to be directly threatened by the disease, Mr. Lyttelton considers that the contribution is a very generous one.

Colonel Hayes-Sadler's estimate of the cost of the six additional medical officers is based on an eight months' period, but it is scarcely possible that the officers could be selected and sent out before the end of September, so that they will only be employed during six months of the current financial year. Items 6, 7, 8, 9 and 13, and possibly some of the other items, should accordingly be reduced by one quarter, bringing the estimate of the sum to be expended on this service during the current financial year from £4,750 down to about £3,800. From this amount is to be deducted the Egyptian contribution of £1,000, which has already been paid over, leaving a balance of £2,800 to be provided.

8. Mr. Lyttelton secs no prospect of further reducing this amount as suggested. in the 9th paragraph of the Commissioner's despatch. Sir Vincent Corbett has informed this Department unofficially that the Egyptian Government are unable to depute any medical officers to study sleeping-sickness in Uganda, and the Com- missioner of the British Central Africa Protectorate, who is now on leave in this country and has been consulted on the subject, is reluctant to depute any of the medical officers of that Protectorate and, in any case, could not send more than one. It is, however, a matter for consideration whether, in the interests of the British Central Africa Protectorate itself, it is not advisable that one of the medical staff of the Protectorate should not be exchanged for a doctor from Uganda who has had experience of sleeping-sickness, and Mr. Lyttelton proposes to instruct the Com- missioner to look into the matter on his return to the Protectorate.

9. I am accordingly to ask their Lordships to sanction the proposed expendi- ture of £2,800 during the current financial year, and the provision of such sums in the estimates for succeeding financial years as will enable the six additional medical officers to be employed for a period of three years. It will be seen that Colonel Hayes- Sadler suggests that the expenditure for the current financial year should be met from last year's savings, which are stated to amount to £14,710 after meeting all liabilities. Mr. Lyttelton presumes that this sum should be employed in reduction of the Grant- in-Aid for the next financial year, and that the proposed expenditure should be met, if possible, from savings on the gross authorized expenditure for the current financial

year.

SCHEDULE OF ENCLOSURES.

I am, &c.,

C. P. LUCAS.

2.

1. Commissioner to Colonial Office. No. 65. 13th June.

Telegram from Commissioner to Colonial Office.

15th June.

3.

Sir V. Corbett to Colonial Office 27th July.

4.

Colonial Office to Sir V. Corbett. 8th August.

5. Telegram from Colonial Office to Commissioner.

8th August.

6. Telegram from Commissioner to Colonial Office.

14th August.

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