HC Deb 25 May 1909 vol 5 cc1000-1
Mr. RAMSAY MACDONALD

asked the Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs whether he is aware that Mr. H. C. Ross, late of the Egyptian Sanitary Service, left the Navy to join that service on an understanding given him by Sir Horace Pinching, then Director-General of the Egyptian Public Health Department, that so soon as a vacancy occurred in the permanent staff it would be filled by Mr. Ross; that Mr. Ross received from Sir Horace Pinching information that his services were entirely satisfactory; and that, on the appointment of a new Director-General, Mr. Ross was informed that he would not he appointed to the permanent staff because in future such appointments were to be given to natives; whether he is aware that the next vacancy was filled by an officer of the Royal Army Medical Corps, and that Mr. Ross was then ordered to relinquish charge of work which he had planned and carried on for the extinction of malarial fever in Cairo; and whether, seeing that, as the result of the action of the Egyptian Government, the attempts inaugurated in Cairo and Heluan to extirpate mosquitoes and rid the country of malaria were stopped, he proposes to take any action in the matter?

Sir E. GREY

My information is to the effect that Sir Horace Pinching did not promise Mr. H. C. Ross a permanent post in the Egyptian Sanitary Service, but that he offered him a temporary post with the prospect of a permanent appointment if his work proved satisfactory. Mr. Ross's work was considered satisfactory by Sir Horace Pinching, but not by that gentleman's successor, who, in the exercise of his discretion, did not feel justified in giving Mr. Ross a permanent appointment. Mr. Ross states that Mr. Graham informed him that in future such appointments were to be given to natives, but there is no corroboration of this in Mr. Graham's account of the interview. I am aware that the vacancy in question has been filled by an officer of the Royal Army Medical Corps, and that Mr. Ross was ordered to Upper Egypt on plague duty. I have no information to the effect that the attempts to extirpate mosquitoes at Cairo and Heluan have been abandoned, but, in June last, I received a Report that the work at the latter place was being very efficiently supervised by a subordinate employé. The Director-General of Health at Cairo must be left full discretion to select for permanent posts in his department those persons whom he may consider most suitable, and His Majesty's Government have no ground for interference with his decisions.