As late as the early twenties the missions were, apart from a small grant from the government, entirely responsible for the provision of education in Uganda. In 1925 a Department of Education was set up. Working in co-operation with the Missions, the new department was responsible for an inspectorate of what still remained the Missions' schools. In the following year, the Government secured the means of determining the educational policy of the Protectorate. The Medical Department's principal responsibility as originally constituted, was the medical care of officials. It was the ravages of the sleeping sickness epidemic in the early years of the century that first involved the Department with the health of the African population. In 1906 a special section of the Medical Department was formed to investigate the disease and to treat the sick. Public Relations was also a priority for the colonial administration in 1946 its stated aims were "firstly to serve as a channel of information between the Government and the people, and secondly to popularise and promote all measures directed to the social progress and material welfare of the people". Following a departmental re-organisation, in 1952 the new Department of Information's aims were stated included "iii) to kill rumours and combat subversive propaganda; and iv) to publicise Uganda abroad." This new remit had a greater focus on control than that of the predecessor department.