File 3142/1903 'Hedjaz Railway' [‎38r] (82/488)

[This Document is the Property of His
EASTERN SANITARY REFORMS. - [September 28.]
CONFIDENTIAL.
Section 1,
[33599] No - !•
Local Government Board to Foreign Office.—(Received September 28.)
Whitehall, September 26, 1908.
’ I AM directed by the Local Government Board to advert to your letter of the
16th instant, transmitting, for their observations, a copy of a communication from the
French Embassy with reference to the sanitary control of the Hedjaz Railway.
The Board may observe that the adhesion of the Ottoman Government to the
Paris International Convention of 1903 would entail the reorganization of the
Constantinople Superior Board of Health in accordance with the terms of that Con
vention. As a consequence, one of the two conditions attached by the British
Government to their acceptance of a sanitary station at Ormuz would be satisfied, and
only one reserve Avould remain in the way of the creation of that station. 1 he Board
are advised, however, that this drawback would be more than compensated by the
advantages that may be expected to accrue, both to the public health and to commerce,
should the Ottoman Government adhere to the Convention of 1903 and carry out its
provisions. It would seem desirable therefore to assist any step that would be likely to
lead to this end, unless it were open to objection on political grounds. The Board are
not in a position to judge what degree of success is likely to attend an appeal to the
Ottoman Government on this subject by the Powers collectively; but it appears to the
Board that any prospect of success, however small, would justify this procedure in the
absence of objection on political grounds.
But, although intervention of this kind by the Powers may be regarded as
desirable, it appears to the Board to be very doubtful whether the suggestion that the
Ottoman Government should be offered an advance of money from the funds at the
disposal of the Constantinople Board of Health on the condition that Turkey shall
adhere to the Convention of 1903, is a satisfactory way of approaching the question.
It may perhaps eventually prove inevitable to provide from this source the means
necessary for the sanitary control of the Hedjaz Railway, but the Board suggest that
this should be a matter for negotiation in which the reduction of shipping dues, the
possibility of which the French Ambassador seems to contemplate abandoning, should
not be lost sight of.
It appears to the Board that it would be preferable for the Powers to approach
the Ottoman Government in the first instance on the ground that, in view of the
greater danger of invasion of Europe by plague and cholera in consequence of the
construction of the Hedjaz Railway, it is desirable, to an even greater degree now^ than
it has been in the past that Turkey should adopt the more modern and more efficient
methods of combating these diseases, embodied in the Paris Convention of 1903.
I am, &c.
(Signed) JOHN LITHIB^T, Assistant Secretary.
[1971 ee —1]