from the facts once more brought out at the meeting of the National Tuberculosis Association at its annual meeting held in Ottawa on March 17th, 1922. The superintendent of the Qu’Appelle Sanatorium, Sask., gave there the results of a special study of 1575 children of school age in which advantage was taken of the most modern scientific methods. Of these 175 were Indian children, and it is very remarkable that the fact given that some 93 per cent. of these showed evidence of tuberculous infection coincides completely with the work done by Dr. Lafferty and the writer in the Alberta Indian schools in 1909.
It is indeed pitiable that during the thirteen years since then this trail of disease and death has gone on almost unchecked by any serious efforts on the part of the Department of Indian Affairs, placed by the B. N. A. Act especially in charge of our Indian population, and that a Provincial Tuberculosis Commission now considers it to be its duty to publish the facts regarding these children living within its own Province.
EPILOGUE.
This story should have been written years ago and then given to the public; but in my oath of office as a Civil Servant swore that “without authority on that behalf, I shall not disclose or make known any matter or thing which comes to my knowledge by reason of my employment as Chief Medical Inspector of Indian Affairs.” Today I am free to speak, having been retired from the Civil Service and so am in a position to write the sequel to the story. It has already been stated that in 1918 and 1919 I had supplied to my then Minister of Immigration, the Hon. J. A. Calder and to the then President of the Council, the Hon. N. W. Rowell various memoranda regarding the establishment of a Federal Department of Health, amongst these being a draft of the Bill which later became the Act establishing the Department of Health. To my disappointment the position of Deputy Minister of Health to which I had a right to aspire after twenty-two years as Chief Medical Officer of Ontario
, and fifteen years as Chief Medical Officer of Immigration and Indian Affairs was given to another, wholly outside the Federal Civil Service and in violation of the principle of promotion, which was supposed to prevail when the patronage system was to be done away with. The excuse was on the ground of my advancing years, although at that moment the position of Auditor General was being filled by the promotion of one who had reached sixty-five years, while a Historian to the Militia Department was appointed at a salary of $7,000 per year, who likewise had reached just then this age.
Naturally I felt that it would be impossible to carry on and retain my self respect as a subordinate, while performing the duties, which I had been engaged in for fifteen years as Chief Medical Officer and so asked that I be given other congenial work. That my claims to the position were deemed reasonable may be judged from the following letter addressed to my brother the Rev. Professor Bryce, D.D., of Winnipeg. Writing from Victoria, B. C., on March 9th, 1920, to myself he said, quoting from a letter received from the Hon. Mr. Calder in reply to one of his own:—
“I quite appreciate the views of your brother in reference to his situation here, and personally would be only too glad to do anything I can to help out. When the Public Health Department was created, your brother certainly had claims to the appointment as Deputy Minister. Owing to his advanced age however, Council finally concluded that a younger man should receive the appointment. The government has on several occasions considered the question of placing your brother in some other branch of the Service, and I have no doubt that this will be arranged in some way or other shortly. He is now an official of the Public Health Department. He could of course remain there but this apparently is not agreeable to him. As a consequence some other arrangement, if possible must be made.
Signed, J. A. Calder.”
My indignation at subsequent treatment may be imagined when the same Mr. Calder introduced the Act in 1920, commonly known as the Calder Act, providing for the “Retirement of Certain Members of the Civil Service.” This Act states that anyone retired thereunder shall receive 1/60 of his salary for each year of service. So it came about that on the 17th Sept. 1920, I received notice that I was recommended for retirement under this Act. The clause of the Act quoted for my information states:—
“Section 2(3). When it is decided to retire anyone under the provisions of this Act, notice in writing giving the reasons for such retirement shall be sent to such person, and he shall have the right to appeal to the Civil Service Commission, and the Commission, after giving such person an opportunity to be heard, shall make full report to the Governor in Council and the decision of the Council thereon shall be final.”
I appealed and in my appeal stated that no reason was assigned as provided in the Act, and further that I was still Chief Medical Officer in the Department of Indian Affairs as set out in the Order in Council of 1904.