ملف رقم ٣٤٥ لسنة ١٩٠٨ الجزء الأول "المحمرة: الوضع. تطمينات بريطانية للشيخ." [ظ‎‎١‎٥‎٩] (٤١٦/٣٢٣)

SirC. Sir C. Spring-Rice at the end of 1906 explained the position to Dr. Schneider,
Spring--Rice p re sident of the Tehran Sanitary Council,* who promised to do his best to prevent
GreyJ ’ question being again raised. Dr. Schneider observed, however, that it would
January greatly facilitate his task, should the matter he brought before the Sanitary Council,
1,1907. if the Government of India would consent to improve the conditions under which
quarantine measures were at present carried out in the Gulf, i.e., by increasing the
European personnel and by supplying disinfection stoves and rat-destroying apparatus
at each of the five ports (viz., Mohammerah, Bushire, Lingah, Bunder Abbas, and
Jask), instead of at Bushire only. Dr. Schneider added that the Persian Government
had not the necessary funds at their disposal, and that the expense would necessarily
fall on the Indian Government.
j
B.
Major Cox
to Govern
ment of
India,
September
5, 1904.
Persian
Gulf
Residency
Administra
tion
Report,
1896-97.
Viceroy’s
telegrams
of August
12 and 20,
1903.
Colonel
Kemball
to Govern
ment of
India,
February
3,1904.
Sir A.
Hardinge
to Lord
Lansdowne,
August 6,
1903.
Viceroy’s
telegram of
August 12,
1903.
Viceroy’s
telegram of
March 19,
1904.
It will he convenient at this stage to give a brief account of the quarantine
system hitherto administered in the Persian Gulf by officers of the Indian Government.
In September 1901 Major Cox, after examining the old records regarding the sanitary
control in the Persian Gulf, reported that “ since 1864, and probably before, it has
been entirely in our hands; but our control seems to have come into existence auto
matically, and I can trace no original arrangements with the Persian Government.”
The appearance of plague at Bombay in the autumn of 1896 rendered it imperative
to adopt quarantine precautions in the Gulf. The resources of the Persian Government
were unequal to the inauguration of adequate measures, and the task was, with the
consent and at the desire of the Persian Government, undertaken by the British
Residency at Bushire. After some difficulty, quarantine was placed on satisfactory
and efficient footing at Bunder Abbas, Lingah, and Mohammerah, for which the
services of assistant surgeons were lent by the Government of India, as well as at
Bushire.
In August 1903 the Government of India reported that three assistant surgeons
were euqhoyed exclusively on quarantine duties at Mohammerah, Bunder Abbas,
and Lingah, while at Bushire and Jask the duty was done by the assistant surgeons
attached to the Residency and the telegraph station respectively. The cost of the
quarantine establishment at the fmd three ports, estimated at 1,480 rupees a-month
(1,184Z. per annum) was borne by the Persian Government, Avhile a charge of about
340 rupees a-month (272/. per annum) fell upon Indian revenues in respect of the
quarantine duties discharged by the doctors at Jask and Bushire. The assistant
surgeons were placed under the immediate orders of the Residency Surgeon at Bushire,
who was in the executive charge of the quarantine arrangements. Einancially, control
was vested in the Customs Administration, to whom all fees were made over by the
quarantine officials.
Attempts have from time to time been made to undermine the position of the
British Quarantine Administration. On the 6th August, 1903, Sir A. Hardinge
telegraphed that the Russians were pressing the Persian Government to take the
Gulf quarantine arrangements out of the hands of the British doctors and to place
them under the Belgian Customs Department. Six days later the Government of
India telegraphed that they .had “ positive proof ” that the Persian (government
intended to carry out this suggestion, and recommended that the “ strongest protest
should be made against a change so injurious to British interests,” and that His
Majesty’s Government should resolutely resist the “ principle that quarantine arrange
ments in the Gulf can he subverted, without our knowledge or consent, or that a body
of foreigners can be put in expressly to hamper British trade, the tonnage of which is
over 90 per cent, of the total.” The Persian Government, on being approached by
Sir A. Hardinge, disclaimed all intention of removing the British doctors; but the
British Minister was informed by the Persian Minister for Foreign Affairs that certain
complaints against the manner in which they administered the quarantine “ had
suggested to the Shah the idea that it might be advisable to establish some closer
supervision over their work.” The question was again raised in February 1904 by
Colonel Kemball’s complaints of interference by the Customs Department in the
executive work of the quarantine. The Government of India recommended “ that a
vigorous protest should at once he made against the disturbance of existing sanitary
* This body was instituted by the Shah in 1904 as a result of the cholera panic. It comprises the
European physicians of the Shah as well as several Leg-ation physicians and Persian doctors. Its functions
are purely advisory, and it has neither funds nor executive of any sort under its control.