File 2908/1907 Pt 3 ‘Persian Gulf:- Quarantine; German complaint’ [‎122r] (243/250)

<c suspected ”; a reduction from ten to five days in the periods of
o seiva .ion 01 surveillance which are imposed, according' to circum
stances^ on the various classes of ships, whether in Europe, in the lied
ea, oi m the Persian Gulf The historical term used to describe the body of water between the Arabian Peninsula and Iran. ; and a similar reduction in the period after
the last case of plague at the expiry of which a contaminated area is to
ie icgaided as clean. (YVc have reported in detail in our earlier
espatches the exact alterations made in the periods of observation and
suiveillance imposed in the case of each particular class of ship, and
have therefore confined ourselves here to the above general statement.)
the decision that no goods are in themselves capable of transmitting
P cX S lle 01 cholera, and that they become dangerous only when actuallv
contaminated with the products of those diseases, has led to results
w uch we regard with satisfaction. Disinfection can now be applied
s *! c 1 £°cds as the local authority considers contaminated, and
tne list of articles formerly called “ susceptibles,” which may be disin-
ected or prohibited admission to a country, irrespective of whether Ihev
aie contaminated or not, has been verv greatlv reduced.
The decision that plague is not spread by water has led to the removal
l orn the Convention of all those clauses which formerly required the
c ange of drinking-water and the emptying of bilges in connection with
plague on ship-hoard. Ihese measures are still retained in connection
with ctiolera.
The loimai recognition that a plague patient is no longer dangerous
from the moment he is isolated has put “isolation ” on the same 0 level
vith cure or “ death of a patient. This is tisome extent a gain,
as implying the earlier removal of measures after the occurrence of a
plague case on shore. On the other hand, the decision that the puttin-
on of measures should date from the isolation, and not from the
occurrence, of a case is a disadvantage in connection with pla-ue on
ship-board. r °
The sections dealing with notification have been modified by the
addition of clauses concerning rats (which we deal with later), and of a
clause to the.effect that a single case of plague or cholera, even when
indigenous, is not to involve the application of measures by other
countries. The proposal to make the “ sanitary circumscription ” (for
purposes of notification) a large one in the ease of cholera and a small
one in the.case of plague was rejected ; and the only changes made in
the definition of a circumscription are the substitution of the words “ une
partie.de territoire bien determinee ” for the words “une partie de
territoire^ d’un pays plaeee sous une autorite administrative bien
determinee ” ; and the addition of “ un quartier dune ville ” and “ une
agglomeration ” to the list of examples of circumscriptions.
The classification of ships into “ infected,” “ suspected,” and “ clean
remains unaltered, save that in the case of plague the plague-free period
which determines whether a ship is infected or suspected has 1 been
reduced from twelve to seven days. A formal proposal to base the
classification of ships and the measures imposed on them, not on the
state of health of the ship, but on that of the port of departure was
brought forward by the French delegation. This proposal we regarded
as. of a highly retrogiade character, and it would, if carried? have
reintroduced a system against which our predecessors had strong! v and
successfully fought in the earlier Conferences. It was opposed by
ourselves and others, and no serious attempt was made to put it
through. J -
. The clause which allows the sanitary authority to take into con
sideration, m the application of measures, the presence of a doctor
and a stove on a ship, remains as in the former Convention; and
analagons clauses have now been added respecting the presence of an
apparatus for rat-destruction and of a State-appointed doctor. We did
not object to these additions. In regard to the question* of State-
appointed doctors, the preliminary discourses at the openin<>- meetino-s
of the Conference had seemed to foreshadow proposals to make It