File 2908/1907 Pt 3 ‘Persian Gulf:- Quarantine; German complaint’ [‎123r] (245/250)

observed^ POrt, ° r the presencc of sick or d ead rats on board lias been
The clause which appeared in the former Conventions requirino*
Governments to provide and equip one port at least on each of their sea
S11P be dealfc with, whatever its sanitary state, is
-nrvfA tl i Q i • 16 neW ^ ( J Llventlc | u - Pn this connection it is important to
nil Pn! a S i- ps ’ e T en C v a ! 1 1 sb ^P s » from infected ports have, under the
to iinrlp Veri i] 0118 ’ i^ eU iab ^ e 1 ,e P u l s ion to a properly equipped port,
T,nw w s ffr d T, aiT measuros ot disinfection. Bat-destruction has
rennwf T? ed t0 | h , e “ lea ™ res for which such a ship may have to be
norK b' w. H Was 6H r y and otllers that, while most large
miod^bJ^ + ? e ? nS “ffPPty™? ordinary measures of disinfection,"it
•n-nnlt ^ PP + n hat on - v ‘L ' 6 sln = le P ort > w, iere it is made compulsory,
Wdl ? A he m u ns for - "PPy 111 " rat-destruction, and that some
, ,. i= P mi " *' 1 1 csu t’ especially for clean ships which were repulsed for
U h p ° S< i auses Pave tlicrcfore been added recommending that
. r , shlps s . ho, dd not he repulsed from large seaports, and that all ports
nmvl/fl ‘ U Ywi ll,m pla S L10 or eholera infected ports, should be
provided with the means tor applying rat-destruction as well as the
list of‘such port? meaSUreS ' C0Untl ‘ ies wil1 notif y to each other the
,.,-od!f?f h0U ‘i i add . heie tllat . Ule present Conference has admitted tlie
W' -b" “f 1 ”, h t n ,Urmg C< J l,ntn T t0 0, '^ n;ze eommon sanitary stations.
obe'tw. P tt t the m n ' !< ’! P i t! ’ ,m< e, '. the eondition that, wlien carried into
piactice, it should not, by reducing the number of sanitary stations,
cause Joss to shipping. J
With regard to the cost of rat-destruction on ship-hoard, it has been
decided that, whether the measure be carried out by the sanitary
authority or by a company or individual, the sum charged to the ship
sbou d be hxed by a tariff published in advance, and should be at a rate
which will not result in a profit to the State or sanitary authority.
We have given at some length the above decisions concerning the
danger from rats and the methods devised for meeting it. This matter
has now come under interuational agreement for the first lime. Before
the Conference met we were not a little apprehensive that the measures
which would be imposed to deal with rats would be unnecessarily
onerous to shipping and commerce. There was, as a matter of fact
considerable divergence of opinion as to the exact degree of danger to
he attributed to the rat, thousrh all were agreed that this animal is a
danger. Our own view throughout has been that the danger has been
proved, that the degree of importance to be attached to it has never
been determined, and that it may easily he exaggerated, and that in
some countries it has been greatly exaggerated. While prepared to
accept reasonable measures to deal with rat-plague when its presence
kas . ke . en . Proved, or even strongly suspected, we were opposed to
indiscriminate rat-destruction, in cases where the presence of rat-plague
was no more than a possibility. °
Proposals for measures of the latter kind were made to the Conference
and it was our duty to combat them. We succeeded in obtaining a
compromise, in which we think our views are, to a certain extent met
We should have preferred to spe less latitude left to a sanitary authority
m the ordeiing of rat-destruction on a clean ship from an infected port
m the repulsion of such a ship to another port for this purpose, and in
the matter of the charge made to ships for rat destruction. ’ But no
better results were attainable, and the whole group of rat measures as
finally established is of a much less stringent character than we had
originally feared it would be. Nor do we think, in regard to the three
points just mentioned, that the results in practice will be so prejudicial
to shipping or commerce as might at first sight appear probable. Thus
in the matter of the faculty left to sanitary authorities to destroy rats
H048. u