Dr. Morganasked the Under-Secretary, of State for the Colonies whether, in the workmen's compensation legislation in the Colony and Protectorate of Nigeria, any provision is made for compensation for industrial diseases on the lines of the statutes and regulations in Great Britain?
§ Mr. Harold MacmillanNo, Sir. Such provision was not made in the Colonial Office model ordinance upon which the Nigeria Workmen's Compensation Ordinance, 1941, was based. The reasons for this were the considerable difficulties which were likely to be experienced in many Colonial territories in diagnosing such diseases and the even greater difficulties in determining whether, in any particular case, the disease was in fact directly and specifically attributable to the workman's employment. An additional complication arises from the unfortunate prevalence of diseases such as malaria and hookworm, which lower the resistance of the worker to other diseases. It has been found by experience in this country that even when a case has been dealt with by a medical practitioner familiar with the particular employment and practising in a district where the particular occupational disease is most usually found, it is frequently necessary for it to be referred to a specially qualified medical referee appointed to deal with such cases. As there were likely to be very few medical practitioners in the Colonial dependencies with, the necessary specialised knowledge and experience, it was felt that there might be a considerable risk of inequitable awards being made if provision for compensation for occupational diseases were included in the model ordinance and adopted by the African Governments for whose assistance the model had been prepared.