Created by H. O'Brien
26 Jun 1958
Description:

'CONFIDENTIAL

REFERENCE: 1022/15

MONKEYS - EXPORTERS' LICENCE

MR N. EDWARDS

...

2. Mr. Edwards said that he had supplied the Medical Research Council in England with animals, including monkeys of Pakistan origin. He says he knows Dr Lane Petter [sic] personally and that the latter approved of the object of his visit to this country, but felt that the M.R.C. would have to keep well clear of the business, for fear of getting involved in anything which might interrupt the flow of monkeys to the British vaccine manufacturers. Mr Edwards had a letter signed by Dr Lane Petter.

3. Mr Edwards has travelled round the areas where monkeys are trapped. He has spoken to the trappers and to the middle men, and has had discussions with Mr Rao of Vitae (who does not yet know that Mr Edwards is thinking of getting into the Monkey business). He has come to the conclusion that excessive costs are being incurred and profits being made in the supply of monkeys to the United Kingdom. He says that a monkey, for which a trapper is paid Rs. 1/- by the middle man in a jungle village, costs £20 delivered to London. He also thinks that the conditions in which the monkeys travel from the jungles up to the farms of the exporting companies should and could be improved, since the limited number of exporters have a firm grip on the trade and need not, if they were sufficiently scrupulous, accept from the middle men any monkeys which had not been properly cared for en route from the jungle.

4. He believes that he could establish a farm near Lucknow, to which place the monkeys would have a much shorter journey from the jungles than their present journey to Delhi, which sometimes takes well over a day by rail. He thinks the monkeys could be flown to destinations abroad direct from Lucknow, but, even if this is not feasible, the monkeys could be kept in much better conditions were they to be flown in on a feeder air service from Lucknow to Delhi, and there trans-shipped to their final destination.

5. On the question of air freight, Mr Edwards was very critical of the charges made by B.O.A.C. and K.L.M. These people charge between £6/7,000 for the normal freighter (which carried, under the old regulation, 1,200 monkeys). U.K. private charter companies have offered to do the job for £2,000 and even the American company, Seaboard Western, would charge only £3,000.

6. As regards capital, Mr Edwards has immediately available up to £10,000, but he thinks he might need £15,000 to set up his organisation. He thinks that finance would be forthcoming from the British users of monkeys once he demonstrated that he could deliver the goods. He has no doubt that he could deliver the goods, in far better condition than the existing suppliers. 16.8% of monkeys landed in England, he says, are lost, and these losses can almost all be attributed to bad handling and delays in transit between the jungle and the users in Britain. The monkey in the jungle, he maintains, is almost invariably in first-class condition, and if that same monkey can be quickly and efficiently transferred to the users' establishments in England, where conditions leave nothing to be desired, losses would be eliminated.

7. He is thinking of asking Brigadier Dillon to act as his "front" here in Delhi. He would send out his own men to organise the purchase and care of the monkeys and will be careful to have nothing to do with the existing farms ...

...

9. Mr Edwards had two items of news for us. He had learnt when visiting the trappers and the middle men that certain Russian representatives had been touring the jungles, apparently with the idea of setting up their own supply lines.

10. He also said that the Daily Express had recently sent out a reporter to India to make a study of this monkey business and that the reporter was now back in England, having written an article which "blow the roof off the business" and would give evidence that 24 Indian M.P.s were taking bribes in connection with this business. Mr McIntosh indicated that the publication of such an article would not be helpful.'