ملف ٢٩٠٨/١٩٠٧ الجزء ٣ "الخليج الفارسي: الحجر الصحي؛ شكوى ألمانية" [ظ‎‎١‎٢‎٠] (٢٥٠/٢٤٠)

sanitary regime to be applied, and the sanitary posts to be established,
^The^L in the Gulf has been modified by a reduction from
tento five days in the period of observation in the ease of suspected
ships, and in the length of voyage from an mfectedpoi , after w neh
healthy ship shall be entitled to free pratique. W e should also note
that the Conference has recognised that a sanitary service now exists at
Bushire. The clause in the Convention permitting ships to Opel a e
there no longer contains tlm words “ lorsqu’une installation samta.ro
convenafaltt y aura ete etabl.e. , ,. i i • n. n lP -Hip
With regard to the sanitary posts to be establisued m the vj 1 , t
decisions of tlie Venice Convention have been modified m the following
manner •—The new Convention provides, as did the former one, for two
lazarets ! one at the entrance of the Gulf and one in the neighbourhood
of Bussorah. But the Island of Ormuz is now definitely named as the
site of the former. The Constantinople Board of Health is given the
same powers over the Ormuz lazaret as over that at Bussorah. It is
further charged with finding the funds needed for its installation, and,
it is added, that the Mixed Commission for the Revision of the Sanitary
maviir clinnlfl moet as soon as nossible, to authorise the advance ot the
funds from the Board’s reserves. _ . , ^ . .
We would point out here that in the article giving the Constantinople
Board authority to establish and control the Ormuz lazaret, the clause
contained in the former Convention—“ Pour la station d’Ormuz une
“ entente sera etablie entre le Gouvernement Ottoman et le Gouverne-
“ ment Persan”—has been suppressed. That “entente” had, it was
thought, been arrived at in the interval between the two Conventions,
Persia not objecting to the lazaret being built and controlled, and its
staff named, by the Constantinople Board, provided that the flag and
the armed guards were Persian. But this view was shown to he
incorrect by the unqualified declaration of the Turkish delegation, at
the filth plenary meeting, that no such “entente” existed, and that
Turkey regarded the proposal that the lazaret should fly the Persian
flag as inadmissible. The second part of that declaration called forth an
energetic protest from the Persian delegation.
Our attitude on these various points was based on the following
considerations:—
The proposals to establish lazarets at (or near) Ormuz and Bussorah
constructed and controlled by the Constantinople Board were accepted
by Her Majesty’s Government at the Venice Conference of 1897. We
were, further, well aware of the correspondence that had since passed
on this subject, and of the apprehensions expressed by the Government
of India lest a Turkish lazaret at Ormuz should give the tribal
inhabitants of the Gulf shores the impression that Turkey had the
political control of the whole Gulf.
On the purely sanitary side of the question, we were of opinion that
the need for a lazaret at the entrance to the Gulf had not been demon
strated. On the contrary, the experience of the last seven years has
shown that the absence of such a lazaret has not, as it was feared it
would, proved a clanger, and that, though plague and cholera have
repeatedly been introduced to the Gulf shores, they have not extended
beyond those shores and invaded Europe. The disastrous experience
which followed the opening of the Adjir lazaret—the only one as yet
opened in those regions—was also fresh in our minds, as an object-
lesson of the extreme unsuitability of the climatic and other conditions
lor a lazaret in those waters, and of the danger of establishing an
institution of the kind so far away from the centres from which it must
he controlled.
On all these grounds the establishment of a lazaret at Ormuz
appeared not only uncalled for but inexpedient. On the other hand,
we were no less conscious that a reversal of the attitude adopted by Her