Sent from G.L. Simmons
Description:

'MR. THOMSON

This afternoon I saw Mr. T.E. Patterson, who is the Delhi end of Shamrock Farms Limited, the main agency through whom monkeys are obtained in the U.K. We had already been told that Patterson was coming to the U.K. and would be calling. In fact, he called on General Hance's before coming here, and it was in General Hance's Office that I saw him.

2. Patterson says that the monkeys situation has taken a serious turn for the worse with the release of information about the Salk vaccine and the entry of a number of countries into the monkey market. Apart from the U.S.A. and the U.K., Australia, Canada, Denmark, Western Germany and Switzerland were all now actively interested and trying to obtain monkeys in India. This increase of demand (the number of monkeys licensed to all countries concerned by the Indian Government now well exceeded the immediately available supplies) had led to the emergence of a number of "mushroom" exporting concerns whose only interest was to profit from the situation and who were supplying monkeys of all ages and sizes. It appears that weight and age or an important issue where monkeys for research purposes are concerned. The first link in the chain of supply was the trappers who worked in the jungles, and they also had got wind of the situation and had put up their prices and were insisting that exporters accept all the monkeys that they caught, whether these were of the required standard or not. There was thus a situation in which the price of monkeys was being forced up and exporters were being forced to accept monkeys completely unsuitable for research purposes which, in his case, Patterson said, he had to release. Furthermore, the working standards of the new exporters were not always of a desirable level which could attract unfavourable publicity in India.

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5. All of this is very sudden and we have not much to go on except what Patterson tells us. He is the leading exporter; has been dealing with monkeys for some time and is understood to be reputable. He is obviously concerned about the present situation, but, as his memorandum shows, is not himself a very clear thinker. His suggestions, such as they are, are clearly self-interested ones, but I think that he has some conscience on the matter.

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7. Some kind of agreement between the importing countries in order to regulate the situation would appear to be desirable and to be in everybody's interest, although this side of things is going to require a great deal more thought. In the first place, it is obviously necessary that we should know more of what is in the Indian Government's mind. We have not been informed officially that a time limit is being imposed on the quotas licenced [sic] for the U.K. or that thereafter imports may only be carried out by one organisation. The first step must therefore be, I think, to ask Delhi for information. It may also be desirable to inform Washington and Ottowa of Patterson's visits in case he should call on our representatives while he is there. It will also be necessary to have a meeting with the U.K. organisations concerned. I have already had a preliminary word with Mr. Whittaker of the Medical Research Council who is content to leave the initiative on this to us.'