" ALONE IN WEST AFRICA."
[To Till EDITOR. OF Till .'SrscrITon."] SIR,—Miss Mary Gaunt writes to you implying that she alone appreciates West Africa, that the climate has been grossly maligned, that many wives do not go out with their husbands " simply because they are accustomed to being kept in cotton- wool,"and she compares West Africa with Australia andCanada.
First, as to the universal depreciation of West Africa. I am afraid that Miss Gaunt must have been so unfortunate as to have met the most pessimistic class of man, or did the men, when she tried " to rub in, possibly a little too emphatically," their very favourable surroundings, combine to give her the horrors P I have lived in West Africa off and on for thirty years, and I know how untrue it is to say "every man and woman seem banded together to curse the country." Every Governor I have known has spoken from his heart in highest appreciation of his colony, climate excepted. Men recognize the great possibilities and immense future of West Africa. Except on Minute Papers asking for repairs or new furniture, discomfort is laughed at, grumblers and "grousers" are not tolerated, and men look forward to rough- ing it on trek. You often hear men speak with enthusiasm of the country generally ; you see many keen at shooting, gardening, polo, cricket, tennis, golf, cycling, and now motor- ing; and with experience of all classes of executive officer I have found the great majority deeply interested in their varied work and vigorously tackling the endless problems which present themselves. These men do not " curse the country." Who has not heard of the "fetich water" which once drunk gives a craving to return to Africa P Few go there without drinking a deep draught.
Then as to climate. Miss Gaunt, like so many at the outset, thinks it is all make-believe about the climate. I remember two Governors who began with the same views and who proposed to lengthen the twelvemonth's tour of service : one died from fever in the thirteenth month of his first tour and the other in the thirteenth month of his second. Of course health conditions, owing greatly to Manson and Ross, are vastly improved, but still the climate, though often delightful, is most treacherous. Not only is there the risk to life, but after a few years it is noticeable how most men, unless they have occasionally a longer absence than the ordinary leave permits, deteriorate in ability as well as energy. One of the most difficult tasks of the doctors is to persuade young Europeans of a certain class to protect themselves against the anopheles by sleeping under mosquito-nets. By her sneers at the use of these nets Miss Gaunt will have hardened in their folly these misguided youths (who have to live in the country for more than a few months) and will have done incalculable harm.
I admit that it is not easy for a woman without ties to deal fairly with the subject, but for Miss Gaunt to say " many wives do not go to their husbands simply because they are accustomed to being kept in cotton-wool " is as cruel as it is unjust. In the official class, for which alone I can speak with knowledge, it is difficult to call to mind a single Englishwoman who could have gone out to her husband and did not; but I have known of numerous cases where the doctor forbade a wife to return to the Coast, where the care of children kept a wife at home, where the great expense of the constant voyaging to and fro was the governing factor. And wives have disobeyed the doctor, have left babies at home, and have spent many anxious months on the Coast-line waiting for a husband travelling in the far interior.
To compare West Africa with Australia and Canada is palpably absurd.—I am, Sir, &e., W. BRANDFORD GRIFFITH.
35 Auerbach, Stratum Frankfurt alM.
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