File 3122/1921 Pt 1 'Persia: Quarantine arrangements' [‎407v] (810/1174)

according to the average monthly takings Krans 883 were collected during the
year 1922.
Elsewhere those quarantined receive in return board and lodging for the
fees they give. With the local quarantine service passengers make their own
arrangements with regard to food and pay for and even draw their own water.
The accommodation provided is of the meanest.
Under these conditions, where no return of any kind is obtained for the
fees exacted, and where the enforcement of quarantine (over and above the loss
of time occasioned) entails considerable discomfort and even hardship, not
unnaturally the imposition of what becomes actually a fine is deeply resented
and causes much complaint.
In view of the difficulty of collection, and the discontent caused, and
in view of the fact that the revenue lost would be inappreciable, I would
strongly suggest that the imposition of the quarantine fee is waived,
until some return for the money exacted can be given. On the other
hand if surveillance is substituted for observation a fee should be arranged
that will ensure by the process of Jts collection, the rules of surveillance
being punctiliously observed.
FINANCE.
The main stumbling block I would suggest is the fact that the Chief
Quarantine Medical Officer has no voice in the preparation of the Quarantine
Budget. He is not even provided with a copy of the Budget on which he is
supposed to work. On the Director of Customs, Bushire, being approached
for a copy of this year’s Budget, he could only inform me that expenditure
would be authorised on that of last year. This was the same as the year before,
and the same as the year before that. The only copy of anything like a Budget
available for the Chief Quarantine Medical Officer is a statement in a Bushire
Besidency file purporting to be the Quarantine Budget of 1302 ; but in reality
being a statement of monies actually expended on the quarantine service
during that year. The position of course is ridiculous. The Chief Quarantine
Medical Officer should always be supplied officially by the Persian Government
with a copy of his Budget ; and if he is to be held responsible for the efficiency
of the service he controls, he should at least be permitted to present a Budget
forecast of his needs. As matters stand no provision is made for the upkeep
and repair of buildings and stock, with the result that valuable property is
allowed to deteriorate and become worthless and irreplaceable.
Although the rates of boat hire and wages have risen with the change of
economic conditions during and after the Great W ar, the same sum is still
slavishly provided for the same service, year after year, with no reference to
the man on the spot or to local conditions. The result is increasing difficulty
of making ends meet and the gradual falling behind the times of the service
in matters like transport, hospitals, accommodation, etc., etc.
The 1302 Budget only provided for the bare carrying out of the routine
inspection of shipping and salaries of the staff.
No provision was made for any emergency or epidemic arising, the
arrangements are cut so fine that any large increase in the numbers undergo
ing quarantine throws very heavy additional expenditure on the service for the
provision of extra boats for the conveyance of passengers, extra guards for then
control, etc. The presence of sickness or of an epidemic amongst those
quarantined necessitates the improvisation of medical arrangements, and >e
inauguration of preventive inoculation and the provision of the necessaiy
vaccines, for all of which no Budget provision is made. Further in eien .°
an epidemic breaking out locally, the local authorities look .to the quaran m
service for assistance, especially with regard to rat destruction and preien n
inoculation, for all of which no monies are budgetted for.
It is obvious from the above that part of the quarantine expenditure ^
routine and capable of being foreseen, and part is extraordinary and canuo