'Gazetteer of the Persian Gulf. Vol I. Historical. Part II. J G Lorimer. 1915' [‎2540] (1057/1262)

2540
recommend-
ations.
Reoommend-
atiotis
concerning
the Persian
Gulf.
Recommend
ations con
cerning the
Constanti
nople Board
of Health.
Reservations
by Great
Britain and
now coming' within either of these classes which had been free from
plague for seven da^s before arrival in port. The obligation of the
signatories to notify at once to other Governments the first appearance
of certified cases of plague within their territories was maintained^
and cholera was now included in this provision ; but it was specially
provided that the occurrence or
not involve the treatment of
The Conference recognised that
capable of transmitting either
only become dangerous through
a first case of either disease should
the country concerned as infected,
no kind of merchandise is in itself
plague or cholera, and that articles can
contamination with the pTo ducts of
plague or cholera ; the result of this conclusion was a marked reduction
in the number of articles rendered liable to exclusion or disinfection in
time of epidemic. It was also laid down that an epidemic should be
considered to end five days after the isolation, death, or cure of the last
case. These changes were mitigations of the existing rules ; but the
instrumentality of the rat as a disseminator of plague having by this
time been fulh/ established, the Conference found it necessary to insist
upon the destruction (in certain circumstances) of rats on shipboard : the
measures of rat destruction prescribed by the Conference were however
less stringent than those which had already been adopted by certain
countries on their own initiative. The system of surveillance permissible
in other regions was still not extended to the Persian Gulf The historical term used to describe the body of water between the Arabian Peninsula and Iran. , where
detention for purposes of observation continued to be the rule.
The administrative scheme devised for the Persian Gulf The historical term used to describe the body of water between the Arabian Peninsula and Iran. by the
Conference of 1903 resembled that of the Conference of 1897, but was
not precisely similar. It was decided, as before, that a large sanitary
station should be established near Basrah and a smaller one at the
entrance of the Gulf, but the island of Hormuz was now definitely
selected as the location of the latter, and apparatus should be provided
there for rat destruction. Pending the installation of this permanent
station a sanitary post should be opened on Hormuz. The provisions
for the continuance of the voyage up the Gulf from Hormuz to Basrah
in quarantine were maintained ; but the landing en route at Bushehr of
passengers and cargo was now unconditionally sanctioned. All healthy
ships should receive free pratique at Gulf Ports after five days' absence
from the last infected port, and none were to receive it earlier at any
place.
Important recommendations moreover were made affecting the consti
tution of the Constantinople Board of Health, which was destined by the
Conference to be charged with the management of the Hormuz sanitary
station, whether temporary or permanent, and with the financial respon
sibility for the same. The number of Turkish members should be reduced
to four, and every foreign country entitled to representation should have
one delegate on the Board. The funds for the outlay to be imposed upon
the Board in connection with the Hormuz post were to be allotted by the
Mixed Commission for Revision of the Turkish Sanitary Tariff from the
reserves at the disposal of the Board.
The Convention embodying these and the other conclusions of the
Conference was signed at Paris on the 3rd of December 1903, and the
conditions of renewal were the same as those attached to the Venice