"دليل الخليج. مجلد I. القسم التاريخي. الجزء II. ج. ج. لوريمر. ١٩١٥" [‎٢‎٥‎٤‎٣] (١٢٦٢/١٠٦٠)

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Hanjam and other sites: the principal object of the mission was to
acquire data independent of those obtained by M. Faivre. Dr. Theodore
Thomson^ Medical Adviser to the Local Government Board, who was
selected to carry out this mission, arrived in the Gulf in February 1906
and remained there for a month on tour, the H.I.M.S. a Lawrence
being placed at his disposal by the British Political Resident.
The conclusion^ at which Dr. Thomson arrived, and which he
embodied in his report, were entirely unfavourable to the Persian Gulf
scheme of the Paris Conference. He pointed out that native sailing boats,
which being able to approach the shore are more dangerous as carriers
of infection than steamers, would avoid a sanitary station at the entrance
of the Gulf and, after they had passed it, would be safe from de
tection : in his opinion therefore the system proposed was even to be
deprecated, as it would induce the masters of native vessels which had
avoided the station and on which disease existed to conceal the facts
after arrival at their port of destination. Dr. Thomson also remarked
that, in case of plague or cholera obtaining a foothold, as had already
mo v e than once happened inside the Persian Gulf, it would apparently
be necessary under the scheme to require vessels from the infected
ports to call either at the sentinel station " near the mouth of the
Gulf or at Basrah, and that the enforcement of such an obligation
in practice would be utterly impossible. The proposed system,^ he
observed, would be more severe than that established in the Red Sea,
where there was no general a sentinel station at the entrance ; and,
in consequence of the detention of vessels and of their deflection from
their course, would be prejudicial 10 commerce, especially to that carried
on by sailing ships.
In case, however, a station at the mouth of the Gulf should be
insisted on as necessary. Dr. Thomson was inclined to recommend
Hani am as the site for the same, partly because of the superior
anchorage there, and partly because of the slight deviation (10 miles)
from their natural route to which steamers would be subjected.
Dr Thomson's own recommendations were that attention should be
chiefly' concentrated on the Kuwait-Basrah-Muhammareh line round the
head of the Gulf, a fully equipped sanitary station being maintained at
each of those places, and that Bushehr and Bandar Abbas on the
Persian Coast should be similarly treated; from the standpoint of the
security of Europe, he considered, Bahrain and the places on the Arabian
coast south of Kuwait might be neglected.
Plague and Cholera preventive measures in the Persian Gulf,
1896-1907.
We may now take a brief retrospect of the prophylactic measures
adopted since 1896 by the countries surrounding the Persian Gult,
and' we shall find that they fall under two categories, viz., those