Roebourne W.A.
August 1, 1924
Secretary, West Kimberley Roads Board
Derby
Dear Sir,
To say that I am amazed at the contents of your letter dated July 25th 1924, is to understate the truth.
May I call your attention to the exact phrasing of my letter – which I may state I had intended to be interpreted in a spirit of friendly remonstrance and reassurance – “In the first place you appear to have ignored or betrayed your own Medical Officer.” As your Board has already once misread or misinterpreted this single sentence, I am perhaps ill advised in again calling your attention to it, and perhaps over-optimistic in hoping that amongst those foregathering at the meeting there will be found those with sufficient intelligence to comprehend its significance at the second time of asking. However I take this opportunity of repeating that with every good intention I desired to point out to your Board the injustice that was being done your Medical Officer. It has been published broadcast that scandalous conditions provided at Derby in regard to the licence permitted inmates of the Lazaret. I ask your Board, whether the public of Western Australia and of Australia generally is not bound to assume that these unfortunate conditions are due to the negligence of your M.O. I further pointed out – what is well known to you – the impossible conditions under which that Officer was placed and stressed the point that his solution to the problem set him was at once the best for the township and comparable in the abstract to the National Law of Norway – the Home of Leprosy amongst White People. In the face of this explanation of my letter – which I admit was written in haste and may therefore have appeared to readers far differently than was intended – will your Board persist in maintaining the absurd position that it does not ‘appear to have ignored or betrayed its Medical Officer’, inasmuch as without consulting or deferring to him, it begins a campaign of publicity which can have but one result as far as he is personally and professionally concerned. In this connection may I call your attention to an article appearing in “Truth” of 5 May 1924 making public facts which appear to emanate from and have the authority of the West Kimberley Roads Board and which would suggest to the enquiring and unbiased mind that that body apparently ignored or betrayed its Medical Officer.
I am surprised to learn that I was permitted to leave Derby in ignorance of ‘many things of local interest’ and which I may presume to be relevant and important, seeing that I was, during my two visits to your district, in touch with both the Secretary and several members of your Board. As no mention was made to me of these urgent matters, it appears a remarkable admission of negligence on the part of the individuals concerned. You will readily understand that as a servant of London and Melbourne, I am not responsible to Local Roads Boards, and although I am at all times prepared as a courtesy, to meet and discuss matters with such bodies, the initiation of these proceedings is no duty of mine. The responsibility for this lies entirely with the Chairman of the Board, and the innuendo that in this case the negligence was mine is presumably the product of a similar mental condition to that which originally misinterpreted my letter.
As for the manner in which my letter was delivered, you are no doubt entitled to an explanation and apology. It was placed under the door of your Office because, after a full mornings work at the Lazaret and elsewhere I left in accordance with official arrangements, without having time even for lunch, whilst your more fortunate and less busy Secretary was absent from his Office during the Midday Meal Hour.
In conclusion I deeply regret that your Board has seen fit to indulge in this impulsive and unwarranted expression of indignation, but can assure you that however much its personalities and innuendos may incense me, it will not make the slightest influence on the Report I shall make to the proper Authority.
Yours etc.
Cecil Cook M.B. Ch.M. D.T.M. & H.