305 
'The  personnel  will  have  to  have  their  hearts  in  the  work  and 
‘spare  no  pains  or  energy.  Those  who  work  just  sufficiently  to 
■  conform  to  the  letter  of  their  agreements  with  their  employers  with 
'the  mere  object  of  getting  their  pay  and  returning  home  with  the 
least  expenditure  of  exertion,  will  be  worse  than  useless,  as  the  fact 
'of  their  being  on  the  spot  will  lull  the  anxiety  of  the  world,  while 
'the  disease  will  progress  onwards  round  them.  The  work 'has  a 
'  tendency  to  be  disheartening,  and  it  is  only  those  properly  qualified 
‘men  who  will  doggedly  spend  all  their  time  in  the  cause  that  are 
‘  likely  to  succeed,  and  then  only  with  a  knowledge  of  the  native 
‘  together  with  that  peculiar  tact  and  firmness  necessary  in  the  treat ’ 
‘  ment  of  him.’ 
One  or  two  specific  dangers  may  be  pointed  out,  and  these  are, 
that  as  the  natives  on  the  Congo  side  of  the  borders  have  not  been 
moved,  nor  deprived  of  their  canoes,  there  may  be  some  temptation 
for  the  British  natives  to  go  back  to  the  rivers.  The  co-operation  of 
the  Belgian  authorities  should  be  requested  in  order  to  more  fully 
safeguard  these,  as  yet,  practically  uninfected  regions.  There  may 
also  be  a  tendency  for  some  of  the  natives  to  return  stealthily  to  the 
rivers,  the  Luapula  more  particularly,  in  order  to  fish  with  weirs,  and 
to  plant  crops  ;  this  can  only  be  safeguarded  by  periodical  inspections. 
Unfortunately,  there  is  also  a  necessity  to  guard  against  the  short¬ 
sighted  policy  displayed  by  some  Europeans  in  attempting  to  make 
the  natives  evade  the  regulations  when  it  suits  their  convenience,  in 
spite,  of  the  penalties  which  are  attached  to  infringements  of  the  law. 
There  is  not  much  danger  of  the  natives  in  the  ‘  infected  ’  areas 
doing  any  more  than  simply  crossing  the  boundary  for  a  very  short 
distance,  for  it  so  happens  that  the  division  between  the  infected  and 
clean  portions  is  practically  a  tribal  one,  and  this  is  very  advantageous. 
In  Nyasaland  it  is  altogether  probable  that  other  cases  similar  to 
the  one  which  has  been  diagnosed  are  present.  Many  of  the 
natives,  particularly  of  the  Mombera  and  West  Nyasa  districts,  have 
worked  in  the  Katanga ;  when  we  were  at  Madona  we  saw  a  number 
of  them  passing  through  on  their  way  back  home.  Not  only  this,  but 
as  most  of  the  skilled  labour  and  personal  servants  in  the  East 
Central  portions  of  Africa  are  natives  of  this  Protectorate  and  travel 
much  more  freely  in  search  of  work  than  the  raw  native,  as  in  the  case 
recorded  above,  many  of  them  have  been  in  dangerous  localities, 
u 
