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PUBLIC RECORD OFFICE

Reference :-

C.O. 885

22 PUBLIC RECORD OFFICE, LONDON

ALLY WITHOUT PERMISSION OF THE BE REPRODUCED PHOTOGRAPHIC- COPYRIGHT PHOTOGRAPH~NOT TO

12909

SIR,

76

No. 68.

INDIA OFFICE to COLONIAL OFFICE.

(Received 16 April, 1913.)

[Answered by No. 81.]

India Office, Whitehall, London, S. W.,

16th April, 1913. WITH reference to Mr. Read's letter of the 30th October, 1912, No. 32239,* and previous correspondence, I am directed by the Secretary of State for India in Council to forward à copy of a despatch from the Government of India with enclosed report by Major S. P. Janies, Indian Medical Service, on the protection of India from yellow fever; and I am to say that the Marquess of Crewe will be obliged if he can be furnished with an expression of the views of the Advisory Committee for the Tropical Diseases Research Fund on the recommendations of the report.

I am, further, to request that his Lordship may be favoured with an expression of Mr. Secretary Harcourt's views as to the advisability of undertaking the first three measures, as numbered in the despatch, viz., the appointment of three medical officers as intelligence officers at Panama, Hong Kong, and Singapore, the prosecu- tion of organised inquiries into the etiology and prevention of yellow fever, under the control and auspices of the Royal Society in England, and the establishment of a central intelligence bureau for the receipt, compilation, and distribution of information.

Lord Crewe will also be glad to learn in due course what action it is proposed to take on the recommendation for the strengthening of the line of sanitary defence for British possessions in Asia at Hong Kong or elsewhere.

I have, &c.,

(No. 6/1913.)

MY LORD MARQUESS,

Enclosure in No. 68.

T. W. HOLDERNESS.

Government of India, Department of Education,

Delhi, 20th March, 1913. We have the honour to forward, for your Lordship's information, a copy of a report by Major S. P. James, I.M.S., on the protection of India from yellow fever. Major James was deputed in October, 1911, to study the disease in its endemic area, to examine the local conditions of the principal ports at which ships are likely to touch on the opening of the Panama Canal, and to formulate his views as to the measures necessary for protecting India from fellow fever.

2. The report submitted by Major James is of great interest, and, though the danger to India from the opening of the canal is not likely to be so great as might previously have been anticipated, we concur with him that all reasonable precautions should be taken, as soon as possible, against the importation of the disease into India. The main recommendations made by Major James are contained in Section II. of the report, and are as follows :—

(1) The appointment of a medical officer as an Intelligence Officer at Panama, Hong Kong, and Singapore, respectively, in order to secure continuous and trustworthy information regarding any outbreak of yellow fever in areas whence infection is likely to be conveyed.

(2) The prosecution of organized inquiries into the etiology and prevention of yellow fever, under the control and auspices of the Royal Society in England.

(3) The establishment of a Central Intelligence Bureau for the receipt, compilation, and distribution of all information collected under (1) and (2).

(4) The systematic investigation in India of the stegomyia problem according to a definite scheme, and the continuous improvement and extension of constant high-pressure water-supplies.

(5) An inquiry into the possibility of the spread of the disease to India by

way of the Cape of Good Hope.

(6) The strengthening in Hong Kong of the line of sanitary defence for

British possessions in Asia.

3. Major James is of opinion that the measures suggested at (1), (2), (3) and (6), which deal with the appointment of medical men as Intelligence Officers at certain

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ports outside of India, the institution of scientific inquiries under the auspices of the Royal Society, the establishment of a Central Intelligence Bureau and of a modern quarantine station at Hong Kong are of Imperial interest, and should be dealt with as matters common to the British Empire as a whole. We agree with this view, and we suggest to your Lordship the advisability of giving effect to these proposals as soon as possible. In view of the benefits which India is likely to derive from the adoption of the measures detailed at (1), (2), and (3), we shall be glad to consider what contribution should be given from Indian revenues towards these objects on learning your Lordship's views on the subject.

4. The recommendations at (4) and (5) are of more direct interest to India, and it will appear from our telegram of the 22nd March, 1912, that measures have already been taken for a survey of the principal Indian ports in order to ascertain the extent to which the carrier stegomyia prevails in those areas. The further theasures now recommended by Major James, in a note on the practicability of stegomyia reduction in Indian sea-ports (copy enclosed), the chief of which is the provision of a constant high-pressure water-supply in such ports, will be brought to the notice of the maritime local Governments. The Government of Madras will be asked to consider the advisability of making the experiment referred to in para- graph 12 of the note referred to. The proposal made at (5), regarding the deputation of a medical officer to inquire into the possibility of the spread of the disease to India by way of the Cape of Good Hope, will be considered separately.

We propose, on receipt of your Lordship's reply, to publish the report submittedTM by Major James.

The Most Honourable

The Marquess of Crewe, K.G.,

We have, &c.,

His Majesty's Secretary of State for India.

O. MOORE CREACH.

G. FLEETWOOD WILSON. R. W. CARLYLE, HARCOURT BUTLER. SYED ALI IMAM. W. H. CLARK.

R. H. CRADDOCK.

THE PROTECTION OF INDIA FROM YELLOW FEVER.

Yellow fever has not yet appeared in India, but the abundant presence of the mosquito (stegomyia fasciata) which transmits it, the susceptibility of the population, and the general conditions in the chief seaports are very favourable to its existence and spread, and it is believed that the introduction of the virus would be followed by devastating epidemies which would be exceedingly difficult to control. In 1903 Sir Patrick Manson drew prominent attention to the risk that the commercial developments which will follow the opening of the Panama Canal may lead to the introduction of the disease into Asia, and in June, 1911, the danger to India was discussed in an important paper by Major F. F. Gordon Tucker, I.M.S., I'rofessor of Pathology in the Grant Medical College, Bombay. In order that first-hand information, which would be useful in devising timely measures, might be available, I was deputed by the Government of India in October, 1911, to ascertain the conditions in a portion of the endemic area in Central America, and in the principal seaports between that country and India. The route by which I travelled and the names of the places visited are shown on the accompanying map, and I have detailed in the last section of this report the information I was able to collect. For the remainder of my report I propose to summarize briefly the opinions at which I have arrived regarding the degree of danger of the introduction of yellow fever into India, and regarding the measures which might be taken at present.

I.

The first ideas that come to one's mind on examining a map of the world, or of the Pacific Ocean. prepared on Mercator's projection, are that the Panama

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