File 3122/1921 Pt 1 'Persia: Quarantine arrangements' [‎86r] (167/1174)

f V f * V V.
CONFIDENTIAL.
INDIA OFFICE The department of the British Government to which the Government of India reported between 1858 and 1947. The successor to the Court of Directors.
B. 394
Ikutz, .• jiJU 3^3
P. 4195/28*
Quarantine Control in the Persian Gulf The historical term used to describe the body of water between the Arabian Peninsula and Iran. .
This question has now been disposed of, at any rate temporarily, by the
decision of His Majesty’s Government to acquiesce, subject to certain
provisos, in the immediate transfer of control to the Persian Government,
such transfer taking effect on 28th July. Should it, however, prove that
Persia is incompetent adequately to discharge her international obligations,
the position will call for further consideration.
The Memorandum now attached describes in some detail the developments
leading up to the surrender of control by His Majesty’s Government.
1 . Under arrangements dating from 18(54 and confirmed and modified in
189(5 on the occasion of an epidemic in the Gulf, quarantine arrangements
are in the hands of British medical officers lent by the Government of India
from the Indian Medical Service, Ac. Since 1896 the pay and allowance of
the Quarantine Medical Officers at Bunder Abbas, Lingah and Mohammerah,
and the pay of the quarantine establishments and contingent expenditure at
Lingah, Bunder Abbas, Mohammerah, Bushire and Jask, have been borne
by the Persian Government. The Chief Quarantine Medical Officer reported
in 1927 that expenditure on these ports averaged krans 2 , 20,000 per annum,
but that, the Persian Government providing a sum of approximately
krans 1,80,000 annually to meet this, there was invariably a claim for
arrears. The remaining expenditure on the service and the personnel by
which it is manned (allowances to Chief Quarantine Medical Officer, to
Senior Assistant Surgeon, Bushire, and to Assistant Surgeon, Jask ; pay
and allowances of junior Assistant Surgeon, Bushire ; total in 1927,
Rs. 12,000 per annum) is equally divided between Imperial and Indian
revenues. The Persian Government were, however, informed in 1926 that
His Majesty’s Government would not be prepared to sanction further capital
expenditure in connection with installations or expenses of maintenance.
The Chief Quarantine Officer in the Gulf has in the past reported to the
Sanitary Council in Teheran, which contains a British member.
2. At the International Sanitary Conference in Paris, the meetings of
which concluded in June 1926, the Persian representative endeavoured,
unsuccessfully, to secure recognition of the fact that Persia was now fully
competent to administer the sanitary services in her ports without foreign
intervention. Having failed to secure his object, and having refused to
consider a compromise under which Article 90 of the Convention (which
replaces Article 83 of the Convention of 1912, and under which the existing
condition of affairs is regulated) should be replaced by an Article stating
that the sanitary regime in Persian ports would be determined by subsequent
negotiations between the Persian Government and His Majesty’s Government,
he put in a reservation as regards Article 90. To this the representatives
of His Majesty’s Government and the Government of India replied by a
counter-reservation saving (he status quo, pending the conclusion of an
agreement on the subject between His Majesty’s Government and Persia,
and both reservations were consigned to the record of the proceedings.
3. In January of the following yearn’ the Persian Government raised the
question of transfer to Persian medical officers of the quarantine service in
the south with the Minister in Teheran, who replied in the terms of the
reservation, of June 1926. In April 1927f the Assistant to the Political
Resident in the Persian Gulf The historical term used to describe the body of water between the Arabian Peninsula and Iran. agreed, without authority, to the exercise by
the Persian Government of what was described as !< a nominal control ” over
the quarantine arrangements carried out in the Gulf by our officers. His
action was disavowed, the Resident taking the line, when opportunity
offered, that the question was one which must be raised in Teheran through
the ordinary diplomatic channels, but the error had been made and the
Persian Government did not fail to take advantage of it.
4. In July of 1927J Sir Robert Clive reported that the Persian Director
of Health had noted in the minutes of the Sanitary Council a statement that
2979 a 75 10.28 A
Teh. Desp. 468,
Sept. 24 1927
F.O. to I.O., Mar. 1
1926, P. 792/26.
F.O. to I.O., June 26
1926, E. 3813/898/34,
P. 2166/26.
*■ Teh. Uesp. 23,
Jan. 13 1927,
P. 626/27.
t Letter 1315 from
Pol. Res. to G. of I.,
April 30 1927,
P. 3210/27.
X Teh. tel. to F.O.
132, July 21 1927,
P.3652/27.