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four if not five assistant district officers attached to this Ward to supervise the disin-
fection work only, as the sub-inspectors in charge of the disinfecting gangs require
a great deal of supervision to see that they carry out their orders properly.
During the last epidemic I was left by myself for a long time, and later only
had one assistant and between us we were not able to exercise proper supervision
over all the gangs. A great many of these sub-inspectors are of the rolling stone
variety and considering the small amount of pay that they receive it is not to be
wondered at if they succumb to the various temptations they are exposed to while
at work. There is no doubt whatsoever that they are offered a great deal of money
by the people at large, especially amongst the better classes, who do this so as to
escape having their houses, etc., disinfected. It is for this reason I consider that
there should be so many extra Staff Corps officers appointed to this Ward as soon
as the plague commences in epidemic form. I might mention that I personally
was offered rupees five by a man (well-to-do) living in Kalbadevie Road if I
would leave one small room alone and not disinfect it. If they would do it to
me it stands to reason that they would not be so backward in dealing with men
who, as a rule, are very hard-up and who would perhaps have very few scruples
in accepting something to augment their pay. They require a great deal
of close supervision, and if this is done I have no doubt whatsoever but that
the results of disinfection will greatly improve. Disinfection in this Ward has
been carried out as carefully as possible and I have been constantly on the move
amongst the gangs and also the rooms that had already been done. In cases
where the work was not done to my satisfaction it was done again. Amongst the
richer classes a certain amount of difficulty was encountered. As a rule, friends
and neighbours used to come round and try and persuade ITS that no plague
deaths had occurred in the places put down for disinfection. They also come and
interfere with the gangs and say they are not to do this or that, etc. On a few
occasions the people have assaulted the gangs when they first went to disinfect
houses, and also while they were at work. The disinfecting staff are quite at the
mercy of the people as the only remedy they have is to charge their opponents with
common assault, as any one assaulting any of the plague staff excepting gazetted
officers and permanent Municipal servants cannot be charged with assaulting a
" public officer" in the execution of his duty. I certainly consider that the
subordinate plague staff ought to have some protection against such assaults
Amongst the lower classes of Hindus there was very little difficulty in carrying
out disinfection.
Very great care was taken in selecting men for the disinfecting gangs
so as to avoid having men of low caste, whose presence in their rooms the
people objected to very much. They consist chiefly of Pardesi Brahmins,
Marathas and a few Mahomedans. The latter are not used in Hindu houses and
usually look after the cart outside while operations are in progress. I might
mention that to the present time in spite of all precautions to have only good
caste men in the gangs a great many Hindus object to the gangs going into their
rooms on the score that they are all low caste men. When, however, matters are
explained to them regarding the castes of the men employed they usually allow
disinfection to proceed without further objection. In some cases, but not many, the
people have asked to be allowed to carry out the disinfection with their own
men and this has always been allowed with the result that the disinfection is
promptly carried out. At other times the gangs are requested to come at a parti-
cular time and their wishes are always met in this respect, too. For instance, the
proprietor of a shop who carried on business all day long and to whom it would
have meant a very serious loss if the place had been disinfected when the gang