NationalLibraryOfScotland/medical-history-of-british-india huggingface dataset:
73
APP. VIII. ]
spread of infection by land.
8. As to the fourth request, the Bhilad Railway station and
Bamanpunja Naka should be on precisely the same footing and sub-
ject to the same rules and relaxations as Damaun Road Railway
station and its corresponding Naka.
9. As to the fifth request, there is no objection.
10. The settlement of the sixth request should be the same as
for grass. The Sirkarkun, Mamlatdar, and Chief Constable should be
on the lookout for signs of scarcity at Damaun. It is not the desire
of Government to deprive the people there of meat, and when the
price of meat rises to an excessive height, cattle should be allowed to
pass in (but not out) on condition of changing attendants.
11. The seventh complaint about washing clothes, the Commis-
sioner has not been able to understand. The Damanganga referred
to by Mr. Moore is salt, so also is the Kalu. But the Portuguese
dhobies have hitherto been allowed to resort to an upper reach of the
Kalu within British territory, and also to the south bank of the
Kolak. The local officers say positively that no change has recently
been made.
12. The system of changing carts and cartmen is quite practicable
as shown recently in the case of Pardi. Of course it will tend to
diminish traffic, which is what is desired. The Commissioner is
inclined to think it should be done not at chowky No. 15 but at the
Chala Naka, for two reasons—(1) there is a superior staff at Chola
and (2) it is desirable to keep the concourse at a distance from the
village of Wapi. If it takes place near the village, many people will
escape into the bazaar and the danger of infection from the Portu-
guese carts is enormously increased. Undoubtedly the bundobust
should be made at a distance from British population, i.e., a way
out on the road at Chala.
13. It should be explained for the information of Government that
the embargo is carried out by the salt preventive force along their
preventive line which cuts off from the Surat and Thana districts, the
whole of the Damaun territory except the Nagar Haveli, and also
about eleven British villages.
14. The report of the Collector of Surat, with accompaniments, is
appended.
15. The favour of very early orders is requested as the matter re-
quires speedy handling as well as judicious.
Extract paragraphs 8, 9, 10 and 11 of letter from the Assistant Collector, Salt
Revenue, Surat Range, to the Commissioner, Northern Division, No. 789,
dated 23rd April 1897.
8. "With reference to the plague in Damaun, I found on my visit
there that about 30 deaths a day were taking place. At one burning-
c 10
74
Measures to prevent the
[ APP. VIII.
ghat I counted 10 fires on two consecutive nights, and from reliable
communications I am receiving, the plague is showing no signs of
abating.
9. The arrangements in Chota Damaun are of a most feeble de-
scription, no segregation is enforced, people are being treated by
private distribution of medicines, the Government is panic-stricken
and shut up in the Fort in Big Damaun, and though various orders
may be issued, there is no enforcement of them.
10. Further the plague is raging in the outlying villages of
Damaun, and there is no attempt to grapple with it.
11. The people are exasperated with their Governor, and from the
nervousness displayed by the Government terrified at the plague, and
should the cordon be removed even for three days, I am informed
from reliable sources and believe that thousands of people would leave
Damaun and flood our territory and not one-quarter of the people
now in Damaun would remain."
Extract paragraph 2 of a letter from the District Magistrate, Surat, No. 887-B.P.,
dated 24th April 1897.
" 2. Arrangements have been made to watch the wants and food
supply of the people of Damaun. Signs of scarcity or marked
enhancement of the prices of food grains at Damaun will receive
careful attention and the necessary arrangements will be made.
(a) Instructions have been given to the Mamlatdar of Pardi to
give Portuguese subjects from Portuguese territory pass-
es authorizing them to cross the cordon if they produce a
certificate from the local Portuguese authority of the places
whence they come, to the effect that they are bond, fide
Portuguese subjects.
(b) Arrangements are also being made at the suggestion of the
Commissioner, Northern Division, to establish an observa-
tion camp, near the line of the cordon for allowing egress
to healthy people who wish to leave Damaun.
(c) Under instructions from the Commissioner, Northern Divi-
sion, the Mamlatdar of Pardi has been instructed to give
a pass into Damaun to any one who follows the profession
of a medical man, of whatever nationality he may be. The
Governor of Damaun has been informed."
Extract from paragraph 3 of a Memorandum from the Commissioner, Northern
Division, No. 181-Police, dated 27th April 1897.
3. * * " The undersigned trusts Government will give a general
sanction in such terms as they may please to enable the Commis-
sioner to protect British territory. A stampede of panic and plague
75
APP, VIII.]
spread of infection by land.
stricken people from Damaun into the Thana and Surat districts should
be guarded against anyhow."
Extract paragraph 2 cf a letter from the Commissioner, Northern Division,
No. 188-Police, dated 28th April 1897.
2. " An observation camp is being established on the Damaun
frontier conformably to the lines laid down in Government Resolution
No. 1976-1449-P. of 12th April 1897, and it seems likely a good
many will resort to it as people are getting very anxious to get out of
Damaun. For this purpose the guard asked for in my No. 181-Police
of yesterday will be more than ever necessary to prevent people
from slipping away at night."
Extract paragraph 2 of a letter from the District Magistrate, Surat, No. 926-B. P.,
dated 1st May 1897.
2. Under instructions from the Commissioner, Northern Division,
an observation camp is being constructed on the Damaun cordon
line near the village of Chala for keeping under observation for ten
days people of Damaun who wish to come into British limits. Exemp-
tions will be made in the case of Portuguese officials producing a
certificate that they are officials from the Governor of Damaun and
being free from plague and also in cases where there is very urgent
reason for letting the applicant pass, he being healthy. Mr. Judge,
the Assistant Collector of Salt Revenue, who is at present encamped
at Chala, having agreed to supervise the observation camp, has been
made plague authority for that purpose.
Arrangements have also been made to allow two persons from
Big and two from Little Damaun to cross the cordon for removing
goods coming by rail to the Damaun Road Station. Cart loads of
grass, grain, firewood and cattle for slaughter, specially imported
for the use of Damaun, are allowed to cross the cordon under the
same restrictions as those already imposed on cart loads of mhowra."
No. 40.
Telegram No. 1587, dated Simla, the 26th May 1897.
From—The Secretary to the Government of India, Home Department
To—The Secretary to the Government of Bombay, General Department.
Your letter No. M. over 57°-P., dated 14th instant, regarding
arrangements to prevent plague being imported from Damaun. Gov-
ernment of India entertain strong objections to cordon which has been
drawn between Damaun and British territory for the purpose of pre-
venting communications from the former place. They consider that
proper course is to institute system of medical inspection under com-
missioned medical officer who should have authority to stop all
76
Measures to prevent the
,
[ APP. VIII.
persons who appear suspicious by reason of their symptoms or the
dirty appearance of themselves, their clothes or effects. To carry
out this policy it is essential that there should be segregation camps
capable of accommodating suspicious persons of all classes, and Gov-
ernment of India will be glad to learn for how many people accom-
modation has actually been provided and whether such accommo-
dation is sufficient. They are also of opinion that restrictions as to
transport of goods should be removed.
No. 41.
No.P./759.P dated Poona, the 17th June 1897,
From—J. DEC. ATKINS, Esq., I.C.S., Secretary to the Government of
Bombay, General Department,
To—The Secretary to the Government of India, Home Department.
In continuation of my letter No.M/370.P, dated 14th May 1897,
I am directed to forward, for the information of the Government of
India, the accompanying copy of Memorandum by the Commissioner,
Northern • Division, No. police/205, dated 6th instant, relative to the
danger of British territory being infected with plague from Damaun.
Dated Camp Tithal, the 6th June 1897.
Memo, by F. S. P. LELY, Esq., Commissioner, Northern Division.
Various complaints have been made through several channels by
the Portuguese authorities against the preventive measures adopted
by the British Government against plague, but I submit the time has
come when strong representations should be made in the reverse
direction. We have far more reason to complain of them than they
have to complain of us.
2. The position is briefly this. On the 4th March the first case
of plague occurred in Damaun, and it rapidly spread until the daily
mortality in a town of 8,000 people is said to have been 60 to 70.
Up to this day the Government have done practically nothing to
check its course. The Governor and all his responsible officers have
persistently shut themselves up in the Fort and have done nothing
personally. The only officer who ever visits the plague striken area
is an " Administrator," who has no power to make himself felt and
is virtually only a reporter. The medical attendance is most in-
efficient. A doctor makes hurried visits every day from the Fort to
the plague hospital, and a gentleman sent expressly from Goa has
returned, being unable to get on with the authorities. Segregation
is ordered but never enforced except in the case of friendless and
low caste people who have no influence. Disinfection is a mere
pretence. The whole working staff in Lower Damaun consists of
77
APP.
VIII.]
spread of infection by land.
one Jemadar of Police and 18 sepoys. Being under on discipline,
they devote themselves to making money, and allow the people to
snap their fingers at orders. Mr. Judge informs me that the Govern-
ment charges a fee of 14 annas for registration of deaths, but the
Jemadar charges 4 annas for allowing non-registration, and naturally
his receipts are the larger. A supply of lime for whitewashing was
sanctioned and paid for, but ashes are said to have been substituted.
The people flatly refused to go to the hospital and have been allowed
to lie in their houses and die to the number, it is said, of 2,600 in a
town of 8,000.
3. Thus Damaun is a standing menace to its neighbours—
ourselves. It at present imposes on us the necessity of an observa..
tion camp supported by a cordon of over 300 men. If this was the
temporary result of an epidemic which had been combated and
crushed with the energy of a civilized nation, there would be nothing
to say ; but the action or rather inaction of the Portuguese leaves no
hope of an early termination to all this cost and trouble. There are
signs that the mortality in Damaun is abating, but as the houses
remain infected they will continue to be centres of danger, and their
occupants cannot be allowed to enter British territory without the
greatest risk. There seems no end to it.
4. I am quite aware it would be useless to try to get the Portu-
guese to enforce segregation on their Mahomedan and other unruly
subjects. They have not the power to do it. But now that the
disease is abating and will probably die out of local exhaustion, it is
not too much to ask them to select some strong executive officer and
give him powers to disinfect the houses and prevent a revival.
Unless they can be induced to take this step, which amounts to an
international obligation, there will be a source of plague on our
borders probably for years.
5. Surgeon-Major Lyons having lately spent some time in Da-
maun, enquiring into the results of inoculation, would probably be
able to supply more information about the medical arrangements
than if Government should wish to refer to him.
No. 42,
No. P.—760-P., dated Poona, the 17th June 1897.
From—J. DEC. ATKINS, Esq., I.C.S,, Secretary to the Government of
Bombay, General Department,
To—The Secretary to the Government of India, Home Department.
I am directed to reply to your telegram No. 1587 o£ 26th May
last, regarding the measures to be taken on the Damaun Frontier,
to prevent the spread of plagué. At the same time, I am to forward
7 8
Measures to prevent the
[ APP. VIII..
the relevant portions of a memorandum No. Police-212 of June nth,
1897, by Mr. Lely, the Commissioner, Northern Division, and a copy
of the plan of the Damaun Frontier which accompanied it. For a
fuller understanding of the geographical position I am to invite
reference to the trigonometrical survey sheets. The area referred
to in Mr. Lely's memorandum lies on the west coast between 20° 15'
and 20° 40' N. L.
2. The Northern Division, of which Mr. Lely is the Commis-
sioner, comprises the districts of Thana and Surat, the seaboard of
which has been so terribly ravaged by the plague. Now, happily the
plague has ceased to manifest itself in epidemic form in either of
these districts, but for months past the struggle to keep in check
and then stamp out the disease has taxed the ingenuity and resources
of Government and their officers to the utmost. In this period of
difficulty and anxiety there has been, I am to inform you, no officer who
has shown greater determination, more varied resources and sounder
judgment than Mr. Lely. In effecting measures which have neces-
sarily caused great inconvenience, no one has succeeded better in
carrying with him and securing the co-operation of the people them-
selves. No one has shown greater anxiety to temper the rigour of
rules when practically feasible. Mr. Lely therefore is an officer who
not only possesses in common with several other officers in this Presi-
dency, a thorough practical knowledge of the general nature, the
effects and the means of combating the plague ; but who has special
qualities of judgment and temper that make his advice of the very
highest value.
3. At ordinary times the communication between the British
villages and those in the territory of Damaun is free and constant ;
not only by reason of the contiguity of the villages and the kinship
and caste brotherhood of their inhabitants, but because a large num-
ber of persons habitually go from British into Damaun territory to
drink the liquor which is much more cheaply bought there than at
the shops on the British side of the frontier. One of the great les-
sons of the spread of the plague in Western India is that its cause is
almost if not exclusively the movement of people out of infected into
uninfected areas. When once Damaun became infected therefore the
danger to the villages of the Pardi Taluka became extreme.
4. Mr. Lely has shown with what remarkable success thë people
of that Taluka had protected themselves against infected British vil-
lages ; he has shown how the Damaun authorities attempted to pro-
tect their territory and how owing to administrative weakness they
failed, The British authorities had then a double object lesson before
79
APP. VIII.]
spread of infection by land.
them : on the one hand, the success of an efficient system of observa-
tion and detention of suspicious persons ; on the other, the terrible
danger of a lax and inefficient system. His Excellency the Governor
in Council fully concurs with Mr. Lely that if at this time the local
British officers had failed to act with vigour and determination, they
would have „much to answer for.
5. In the telegram to which I am now replying it is stated that
the Government of India entertain strong objections to the cordon
which has been drawn between Damaun and British territory. It is
possible that all the circumstances of the case are not fully under-
stood. I have commented on the freedom of communication at or-
dinary times ; this however is personal communication ; for customs
purposes there exists a preventive force which patrols the frontier to
prevent the illicit transport of commodities. This frontier is thirty
eight miles in length and can be easily crossed at any point. The
cordon is in fact merely the use of the existing force with some tem-
porary addition to prevent persons crossing the frontier in such a way
as to evade observation. Without this precaution whether the whole
of the Damaun territory or only portions of it are regarded as an in-
fected area and whether all or only certain persons coming from
that infected area are to be regarded as suspicious, there will be no
means of watching all who cross the frontier and of detecting those
who are suspicious and require to be detained.
6. The account of the system of detention as now worked given
in paragraph 10 of Mr. Lely's memorandum shows that none of the
measures enforced are open to serious objection. They do not attempt
the stringency of measures allowed by the Venice Sanitary Conven-
tion of 1897, in Part III of which it is laid down that " each Govern-
ment is at liberty to close its frontiers to passengers and goods." It
will also appear that the restrictions on the transport of goods are only
such as are necessary to prevent the conveyance of infection. Goods
are allowed to be transported without restriction provided arrange-
ments are submitted to, which prevent the passage of infected carts
and drivers into British territory.
7. It would no doubt be possible, were they available, to appoint
Commissioned Medical Officers to various points on the frontier to
stop suspicious persons. But this would not do away with the neces-
sity for using the frontier force as the agency for directing all traffic
into the channels where it must come under observation; and it would
not, as the Commissioner shows, add very materially to the general
convenience. It would, however, absorb one or more Commissioned
Medical Officers whose services can be more usefully employed else-
where, and it would involve the expense of erecting sheds, hospitals
8o
Measures to prevent the
[ APP. VIII.
and quarters that are strong enough to withstand the heavy monsoon
weather of the Western seaboard.
Memo. No. 212-Police, dated 11th June 1897.
From'—The Commissioner, Northern Division,
To—The Secretary to the Government of Bombay, General Department.
2. First of all the net results may be summarized. The Pardi
Taluka is the southernmost part of the Surat District. The next
railway station to it on the north is Bulsar where 901 plague cases
have occurred. The next Taluka on the North is Bulsar, where in all
about 1,600 cases have occurred. On the south is the thinly popu-
lated Mahal of Umbergaon in the Thana District, but beyond that the
trunk railway runs through Dabanu, Bassein, and Salsette Talukas into
Bombay, all of which country was reeking with the disease. In the
month of March it broke out violently in Damaun. The deaths in
Damaun town alone soon mounting up to 35 or 40 per diem in a
population of about 5 to 8,000. Geographically this Portuguese posses-
sion is a part of the Pardi Taluka and occupies its south-west corner.
Large numbers of British subjects cross the frontier every day to
drink at the cheap-liquor shops and then return to their homes. The
people on both sides are closely connected by intermarriage and by
business and keep up constant intercourse.
3. In the midst of all these fires the 58,245 people of the Pardi
Taluka have remained unscathed. Only a single indigenous case of
plague has occurred, and that was a ward by in the segregation hos-
pital at Pardi. There have been 24 imported cases.
4. In the first place it should be noted that the defence has been
and is largely the work of the people themselves. In the month of
February the Commissioner being in those parts called meetings of
the people in Pardi town and in Wapi, the next most important
village and railway station. He explained to them that if they would
escape the fate of Bombay they must themselves protect their hearths
and houses, and that they should resolutely keep out every stranger
until it was proved by observation that he was free from infection.
This suggestion was taken up so warmly that the people prevented
even the staff of the Divisional officer who had been on tour in infected
villages of Bulsar from entering the town of Pardi. Round many of
the villages a line has been drawn with religious ceremonies which
could not be crossed by any stranger. No doubt the inclination is to
treat every one as " suspicious " without further ado, but the spirit
of selfhelp displayed is highly gratifying and greatly fends to lighten
the work of Government officers. Government would hesitate to
break it down and insist on the villagers receiving within their gates
81
APP. VIII. ]
spread of infection by land.
in a time of epidemic a man whom they honestly feared to be
dangerous. It would be a terribly highhanded thing to do, for no
one can positively say at such a time who is or is not the bearer of
infection.
5. The Collector's orders have supplemented the determination
of the people. The main points have been as follows. For Pardi
town and railway station ten days' observation for all suspicious
persons under the eye of the local medical officer, an experienced and
capable men. As a fact very,few people are allowed to pass as free
from suspicions. Also goods coming in from or going to infected
places are bound to change carts and drivers on the way. Here,
again, it was practically presumed that every place was infected until
it was proved otherwise, and with reports of plague from every quarter
this could scarcely be called unreasonable. The protection of Pardi
was the chief object of the campaign at first, for it was the gateway of
the Taluka. At the next most important railway station, Wapi
(Damaun Road), there was a segregation hospital with a special
qualified medical officer. At the next, Udwada, there was also a
hospital, and examination of passengers was made by the Patel with
the assistance of local practitioners. At Bhilad it was done by the
Patel. Meanwhile in all the villages the Patels were authorized to
detain suspicious strangers at a distance for 10 days' observation.
This as a fact was interpreted by the voluntary action of the people
themselves to mean exclusion of all strangers except in special cases,
and the result has been the saving of the district.
6. For some time Damaun territory was free from plague, and
many refugees from stricken Bulsar being refused admission into
British villages betook themselves in that direction. The Portuguese
authorities had placed a cordon on the frontier to stop them, but it
was corrupt and ineffective. Persons from Bombay and Bulsar carry-
ing the plague in their clothes and kit were allowed to pass in, the
consequence being that the fate which the people, aided by their
Government, were resolutely warding off from themselves in the
surrounding British territory, fell with terrible force on Damaun. At
the end of February the crew of a ship who arrived from Karachi were
allowed, in defiance of nominal rules, to land at night and a case
soon after occurred among them. About the same time a woman who
had come from Bulsar fell ill. From these beginnings the disease
rapidly spread throughout the month of March, until in April it is
credibly reported that in the small town of " Big Damaun " alone
there were 60 to 70 cases per day.
7. The British villagers, though it would cause them inconveni"
Cnce, wished to see all communication cut off, and if the position be
C II