ملف رقم ٣١٤٢ لسنة ١٩٠٣ "سكة حديد الحجاز" [و‎‎١‎٠] (٤٨٨/٢٦)

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EASTERN SANITARY REFO
CONFIDENTIAL.
[July 16.]
Section 1.
[26826] No - 1 -
Local Government Board to Foreign Office. (Received July 16.)
g.^. Whitehall, July 15, 1909.
I AM directed by the Local Government Board to advert to your letter of the
11th ultimo, transmitting, for their observations, copy of a despatch Irom^ ills
Maiesty’s consul-general at Alexandria enclosing copy of Dr. Morrison s report ot the
May meeting of the Egyptian Quarantine Board, at which it was decided to appoint a
commissior to study the whole question of the return of pilgrims by the Hedjaz
Bailway in relation to the sanitary defence of Egypt. .
I am to observe that it is not clear that Dr. Morrison m his report does not
somewhat over-estimate the drawbacks attendant on the Hedjaz Bailway route, while
under-estimating those attendant on the Tor route. The railway journey it is to he
presumed, will secure a saving in time, and it is doubtful if the discomforts of the
train will be greater than those of the ordinary pilgrim ship. Moreover unless the
tribes along the line of the railway route give trouble, the railway route is likely to be
safer than the road from Medina to Yambo, on which in recent pilgrimages there has
been a serious amount of robbery with violence. t j + 4 .v,
As indicated in Dr. Morrison’s report, there is good reason to conclude that the
creation of a new lazaret on the Mediterranean shore of Egypt wouid foliow it
Egyptian pilgrims were allowed to return by the Hedjaz Bailway. H lurkish
administration of the lazaret at Tebouk, on the line of the railway, could be trusted to
he efficient, there would probably he no need to quarantine Egyptian pilgrims on
their arrival in Egypt by way of the railway and Syria; but Dr Morrison doubts the
efficiency of this" lazaret, and it seems improbable that the Egyptian Quarantine
Board would be content to accept quarantine at Tebouk as a sufficient safeguard
against the importation of plague or cholera into Egypt. It appears almost certain,
therefore, that acceptance of the principle that Egyptian pilgrims may return from
the Hediaz by the railway and Syria would involve the creation of a new lazaret on
the Mediterranean shore of Egypt, probably at consideraole cost. It would also
entail diminution- -perhaps great diminution—of the use of the lazaret at lor, a
regrettable consequence, having regard to the large sums of money that have been
expended on its construction. , , , ^ ‘
^ In view of these considerations, it appears to the Board to be desirable, even
though there may be certain advantages to the pilgrims in the return by the Hedjaz
Railway, that Egyptian pilgrims should return only by way of Tor.
I am, &c.
JOHN LITHIBY, A esistant Secretary.
[2357 9—1]