THE LEAGUE.

Manawatu Standard, Volume LVI, Issue 63, 12 February 1936, Page 2

THE LEAGUE.

DECLARES WAR ON INSECTS. (By Ronald Woolfrey.) Famous doctors from all parts of Europe have been meeting at the School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine in London to plan a little war on their own. They have the full approval of the League of-Nations. In fact, the League's Health Section played a leading part in arranging the conference, and has sent its own representative to follow the discussions.

Though millions of casualties may result from the ruthless campaign of death and destruction which is being plotted, no outcry on the part of public opinion is anticipated. For the victims will be flies, which are rightly regarded by the medical profession as enemies of mankind. For years masses of information have been collected by experts regarding the way in which the house fly carries and spreads disease. Public health authorities have warned people to keep all food covered. But the main problem is still with us. Hence the edict has gone forth that the fly population must be reduced by dra»tic means.

Those who have followed the previous activities of the League’s Health Organisation will not be surprised at this latest -development. In the past, other insects have been put on the League’s “black list.” There i 6, for example, the mosquito. Lord Dunsany, in one of his amusing satiric plays, couples the mosquito with the dog as “the' friend of man.” At least, in this play, the mosquito is persuaded to speak a good word for man, who provides him with such excellent breakfasts. In this case the friendliness may be said to be all on one side. If it is irritating for man to provide free meals for hungry mosquitoes, certain species of these insects have the still more objectionable habit of carrying the germs of malaria. In its world-wide campaign against malaria, the League of Nations has initiated measures in many countries for the extermination of these pests. Another insect which has incurred the hostility of the League is the tsetse fly in Equatorial Africa. Some years ago, at tne request of the British Government, the League conducted enquiries into the scourge of sleeping sickness. It was discovered that animals whose blood had been infected-by the tsetse were carrying the germs, of sleeping sickness into various African territories, without regard for national frontiers. As a result of the measures since adopted, the mortality among tsetse flies has enormously increased, but the lives of ten of thousands of African natives have been saved.