Report by Dr Theodore Thomson on the sanitary requirements of certain places in or near the Persian Gulf, &c.

  • Thomson, Theodore.
Date:
1906
Catalogue details

Licence: In copyright

Credit: Report by Dr Theodore Thomson on the sanitary requirements of certain places in or near the Persian Gulf, &c. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine Library & Archives Service. The original may be consulted at London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine Library & Archives Service.

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    Basra it may be that the Constantinople Superior Board of Health will presently replace their defective sanitary station there by one completely and suitably equipped. I am, however, little hopeful that they will abandon the antiquated principles on which some of the measures they apply to shipping are based. > On the Persian coast Bushire is already provided with a sanitarj'- station, which, with the addition of satisfactory provision for the isolation of the infectious sick, would meet all necessary requirements. But, although in this way Persia complies with the international stipulation for at least one port on each seaboard sufficiently equipped and organized to deal with any ship, whatever its sanitary condition, yet there would, in my judgment, be advantage to commerce in also fully equipping the sanitary station at Bandar Abbas. Bandar Abbas is not only a base for important trade routes into Persia, but has also a very considerable trade by sea ; and, in the interests of shipping, it is not desirable that vessels should be sent thence to Bushire if their sanitary condition were such that they could not be dealt with at Bandar Abbas. The circumstances, to which I have alluded, of Bahrein and the Arabian coast below Koweit, do not, from the point of view of the protection of Europe, call for the establishment of sanitary stations there, however desirable these may be in the interests of these localities themselves. In substance, therefore, the scheme best adapted, in the circumstances, to secure a reasonable degree of protection to Europe and the minimum of interference with commercial interests in the Gulf of Persia, consists in the perfecting of the present sanitary stations at Mohanunerah and Bushire, the establishment of a sanitary station at Koweit, and the creation of a new station in place of that now existing at Basra. Sanitarj' defence of the Gulf based on these lines will afford a greater degree of protection to Europe against plague and cholera than would be secured by a sentinel station near the entrance of the Gulf, combined with a terminal station at Basra ; and will not impose on shipjjing the unnecessary and prejudicial restrictions tha,t would result from the latter scheme. If this view should meet with acceptance, I would urge that steps should be taken to put the scheme I have suggested in operation with all possible speed, I view the alternative sentinel station project with apprehension, as calculated to be ineffective, expensive, and gravely detrimental to commercial interests—and these are mainly British—in the Gulf. Abandonment of this sentinel station project is much more likely to follow on knowledge that defensive measures, of the kind and at the places I have indicated, are in actual operation, than on mere aimouncement that such measures are in contemplation. (Signed) THEODORE THOMSON. Julij 12, 1906,