166 
THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST. 
[Sept. 1, 1902. 
1. Guard huts, accommodating slrong guards, 
surround the prisoners' lines, and are close to 
them. This for military reasons is unavoidable. 
2. The men on sentry duty are during day and 
nieht posted at sliort intervals almost immediately 
outsiae the barbed wire enclosui e which separates 
he prisoners from the military camp. Thus 
those on sentry duty (a numerous body of men) 
are in close contact not only with the prisoners, 
but with their latrines, urinals, and washhouses, 
all of which, as I have already stated, are 
situated close to the barbed-wire fence. The 
undesirability on health grounds of the line of 
sentries being placed so close to the prisoners' 
camp was fully recognised, but for military reasons 
it was not found possibleto alter the arrangement. 
From the foregoing remarks it will be obvious 
that those on duty in the guard huts and sentry 
boxes must be to a very appreciable extent exposed 
to the emanations arising from the latrines used 
by the prisoners of war, especially during the time 
when the latrines are emptied — a frequent neces. 
sity. Now assuming that such emanations 
contained typhoid organisms — not a very far- 
fetched hypothesis when we remember that at the 
time typhoid fever was very rite in the prisoners' 
o.amp, and further assuming that typhoid infection 
can loe airborne — the possibility, nay the probabi- 
lity of the infection being thus conveyed from the 
prisoners' camp to the military guards appears to 
be well-founded. 
3. But in addition to the assumption that th® 
emanations from the prisoners' latrines may have 
conveyed infection to the military guard, it has 
to be recorded that the soil of the prisoners' camp 
gave peculiar facilities for the spread of the 
infection. The rank grass which originally covered 
the slope upon which the previous camp was 
arranged very soon disappeared, giving place to a 
reddish soil, so friable that dust was much in 
evidence, notwithstanding that it was the rainy 
season of the year. Now it is not unreasonable to 
reject as pure the dust of a camp in which at the 
time a formidable epidemic of typhoid fever was 
prevailing. 
4. Lastly, the possibility of the infection being 
conveyed to some extent by flies must be consi- 
dered. During the whole period that typhoid 
fever was prevailing in the prisoners' camp, flies 
in that camp amounted almost to a plague, the 
military camp being also infested, but to a lesser 
extent. Now flies being well adapted for the 
carriage ot infection it is plain that, under the 
conditions existing in the prisoners' camp, there 
•would be nothing to prevent flies laden with 
typhoid bacilli migr.iting from the prisoners' to 
the military camp, and thereby conveying to the 
latter camp the poison they carried, 
I have endeavoured in this paper to review dis- 
1^ passionately the evidence bearing on the causation 
of the typhoid outbreak which occurred among 
the military guard at Diyatalawa Camp, Ceylon, 
during the closing month of 1900, I submit that 
I have shown— 
ENGLISH MERCHANTS IN THE 
FRENCH CONGO. 
EUBBSB AND OTHER PUODTCTS. 
{ To the Editor of the " Times.' ) 
Sir, — I have read with considerable surprise a 
paragraph in your issue of May 29 setting forth a 
communication from the French Colonial Minister 
relative to the position of the E'lglish merchants 
in tiie French Congo. I propose lo deal briefly 
with this communication and to refer to the 
character and gravity ot the conflicts of private in- 
terests, without misrepresentation or exaggefation. 
It is quite true that the liriojatiou has been 
between private firms ; but this has arisen entirely 
from the action of the French Government in 
granting concessions to certain new companies in 
Paris, to the detriment of the old firms who hive 
been established and trading in tlie colony for 
over 40 years. In my own case my experience 
extends over a longer period, and my firm has 
paid many thousands of pounds to the French 
•olonial authorities for duties, patenta, &c. The 
greatest cordiality existed between the Government 
and the merchants until the granting of these 
concessions. The trading was also uniformly 
carried on, without litigation or trouble, and, I 
venture to assert, to the beneflc of the colony and 
the natives of the country. 
To those unacquainted with the nature ot the 
trade it may be interesting to state that the pro- 
duce of the soil, indiarubber, palm oil, palm 
kernels, ebmy, and the ivory tusks of the wild 
elephants, comprise what the native has to give in 
exchange for cotton manufactured goods and other 
imports. The commercial intercourse of the 
Hinterland is by a system of barcer between 
what the native has t© offer and the Europeans to 
give in exchange. 
The French Government by the granting of these 
concessions has handed over large tracts of country 
to certain companies, who claim the produce of 
the soil which the native innocently believed 
belonged to him and which he is now prevented 
offering to the Englisli firms, though most anxious 
to do so, The freedom of trade to which refer- 
ence has been made used to exist, but does so no 
longer. It cannot be called " freely carrying on 
their business" to be shut up in a factory, on a 
piece of land aboirt 100 yards square, and not 
allowed to buy any produce from the natives ; yet 
that is the position these concessions have placed 
us in today. The monopolists have closed the 
trading routes against us, seized our produce, 
and by the course of litigation, already referred 
to, obtained damages against us, presumably for 
trespass and illegal trading. 8ome of these trad- 
ing centres are in the conceded area, and the situ- 
ation of others is uncertain, because, so far as 1 
know, no complete boundaries have been delined, 
except on paper. In proof of the uncertainty t'o 
which I refer, I may instance a dispute wiiich 
arose not long ago between two of the concessien- 
aire companies, also a casein March last, when 
aiseizure of a quantity of indiarubber wa< made 
from one of our traders at M'Beka. I do not know 
the exact position of this place, and ."lihougli I 
have made inquiry, have not succeeded in getting 
tire information, but am informed that there is a 
doubt as to which concession it belongs to. What 
the English firms complain of is that, having 
traded in the country so many year.^, before the 
advent of the French authorities in ihe Hinter- 
land, subsequently under French rule by liceuseg 
(a) That all water avenues through v/hich typhoid 
fever could have been conveyed to the military camp 
at Diyatalawa, were efficiently guarded, and there- 
fore that a waterborne origin must be abandoned. 
(6) That the infection was airborne, resulting 
from emanations from specifically infected latrines, 
infected dust, or bacilli-laden flies. — British Medi- 
eal Journal, Feb. 15. 
