100 
it to say that considerable districts of the hinterland of the 
Ivory Coast and Dahomey have been declared prohibited as 
regards the sale of liquor to natives, while the sale of absinthe 
has been prohibited throughout the French West African 
possessions. ag 
As regards other countries, Germany and Great Britain have 
taken very strong steps in Africa—though not nearly as strong 
as are needed-—during the last few years. But I must not 
further intervene in this discussion, except to say that I 
earnestly hope those who are here will make themselves 
informed on this subject, and that whilst I have been chiefly 
concerned all my life in anti-malarial work, and in supporting 
the work which our Chairman has so splendidly set on foot, 
of making known the discoveries that have had such far- 
reaching effects on the welfare of those who work in the 
tropical possessions, yet at the same time I earnestly hope that 
this question of the influence of liquor will not be lost sight 
of, as I believe it to be of the greatest importance that its 
physical and: moral effects should be recognized by every 
worker in the tropics. 
Mr. Epwarp Knox (Queensland): Mr. Chairman and 
Gentlemen—I suppose I owe some apology to this Congress. 
not being a medical man, for venturing to speak on this sub- 
ject, but having been for more than thirty years connected 
with the production of sugar in Queensland—which I think is 
the largest tropical dependency of Great Britain—and in Fiji, 
another important British possession, I thought that I might 
say something with regard to the problems of sanitation with 
which we have endeavoured to deal in these Colonies. In 
Queensland the Government of Australia has decided for 
certain reasons that European labour should henceforth be 
used in the development of that State; and the problems which 
we have had there have been in connection with handling 
European labour in a tropical climate. So far as I am aware, 
in no other place in the world has an attempt been made to do 
agricultural work in the tropics with white men. In Queens- 
land it is possible, partly, I think, because the climate of 
Queensland differs from that of every other tropical region of 
which I have heard. The unusual coolness of the nights in 
winter, the freedom from malaria, and the dryness of the 
atmosphere for a large portion of the year are very material 
factors in preserving the health of the men employed, and so 
far as the men are concerned there does not seem to be any 
reason why with protective duties—provided there is sufficient 
money to pay the extra duties—the work of tropical agriculture 
should not be performed by Europeans there. That it can 
ultimately be so performed when natural conditions only come 
