A letter to the Daily News London in 1934 was published referring to the Christmas Island chickens. It gives an insight as to the perils of being an Island chicken during the swell season. If only Harold Barker could see their flourishing population now. His grateful letter is below:
Saved By the “News Chronicle “
THIS is the story of how the “News Chronicle” helped the inhabitants of a tiny island 200 miles south-west of Java.
The newspaper article that helped Harold Barker diagnose the chicken disease.Daily News (London)
Saturday, 3rd February 1934 (image edited)
On Christmas Island we only get stores once every six weeks. That means that we have to keep chickens, because they and their eggs are the only means of giving us the right vitamins. After the rainy season, from January till March, we have always had an anxious time. Disease sweeps over them and they are almost entirely wiped out.
This year the arrival of the “News Chronicle” coincided with the epidemic, and from one of Chanticleer’s articles I was able to diagnose the disease as white bacilliary diarrhoea. I got the antidotes he prescribes from our hospital, and they saved all the chickens which were still alive. Christmas Island says thank you to the “News Chronicle.”
HAROLD G. BARKER.
Christmas Island.
Straits Settlements.
Daily News (London), Wednesday, 16th May 1934.