8
headquarters at Singapore, and with permission to visit the chief ports in
Sumatra, Java and Borneo, for purposes similar to-those already mentioned.
The scheme here advocated is not a new one, for the United States, with a
view to ensure the safety of their ports, has for some years extensively employed
the practice of attaching officers of the Public Health Service to the American
Consulates in foreign ports ; and it has been found to be by far the most satis-
factory method of obtaining trustworthy and complete information, and of
exercising control over ships bound for the United States from those ports. I
believe that, if somewhat similar action on the part of Great Britain were to be
taken in the manner that I have suggested } the countries concerned would
welcome the co-operation of the officers appointed, and that its adoption
would be a reasonable and effectual safeguard to the East and to India,
(2) In the second place it must b.e recognised that, as is shown in other
sections of this report 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, of whether the very widely distributed and
abundant species, stegomyia scutellaris, carries the disease or not, the bionomics
o'f those species, and many other matters of prime importance in connection with
etiology and prevention ; and that 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.
Therefore my second recommendation is that the study of the subjects
named, and of other subjects of which a complete knowledge is essential to a
successful combat against the disease, be adequately taken up.
Turning now for a moment to consider how these two recommendations
can best be carried out, it is clear that India is not not alone concerned in the
matter, and that by herself she cannot undertake such extensive and prolonged
enquiries as they may necessitate. The subject is of the greatest impor-
tance to the British colonies in the East, but it affects British possessions
generally, and I think there can be no doubt that the most satisfactory
results would be obtained by dealing with it as a matter that is of common
interest to the British Empire as a whole. From this point of view it is a
national task best carried out under the authority of the Home Government,
by combined co-ordinated action in various parts of the Empire, the assistance of
India and the colonies being given as may be necessary. 1 need not emphasise
the great value of a central co-ordinating organization in work of this kind, but
I may remark that during my tour I gained the impression that in some colonies
local action is inadequate, and that, owing to the absence of a correlating organi-
sation, the useful effect of correct and complete information in one area would
possibly be frustrated by lack of knowledge and action in others. The first
recommendation made above implies the necessity not only of appointing
" intelligence officers " to whom adequate co-operation on the part of the several
authorities in the foreign and colonial ports must be assured, but of establishing
a central Intelligence Bureau for the compilation and distribution of the informa-
tion collected ; and the Home Government are in the best position to arrange
for such requirements. Again as regards the second recommendation, although
some of the problems will doubtless be solved in the near future by individual
action on the part of the colonies and of India, there are others about which it
must be said that little or no advance can be expected except from continuous
and sustained research organised and carried out on a much larger scale than
has within recent years been attempted ; and it is clearly very desirable that as
to the means by which such enquiries can best be carried out, and as to their
scope and objects, the advice of the Royal Society in England should be sought,
and that the enquiries should, if possible, be conducted under the control of that
Society. The Home Government are in the best position to secure the co-opera-
tion of the Society in this matter.
(3) If the above recommendations are accepted, India should, I think, take
ä prominent part in the initiation of the joint action by representing the matter