41
2. The history of Plague administration in Karachi in December and Jan-
uary is succinctly told in an interesting 1 report by Mr. B/. Giles, Collector of
the Karachi District, from which the following paragraphs are quoted :
Sketch of events showing the
gradual education of the people up
to the Government measures.
" 3. Karachi is divided by the Lyari river and the Napier Mole and Harbour into three
sections. The Lyavi is only a di*y sandy bed, except when,
after heavy rain, it brings down to the harbour the waters of
the " Kohistan " or hilly range to the north.
"4. With the exception of the one Hindu village at its north-east corner the
inhabitants of the Trans-Lyari tract, numbering some 30,000 souls, are Mahqmedans,
and consist of " Moiianas " or fishermen, whose ancestors, when the English first visited
Karachi, were the sole proprietors of the place, a few Pathans, and a large number of.
Brahuis, Mekranis, LMSÌS, and other residents of Baluchistan, who have—especially of late
years—been attracted to the place by the high wages which the rising trade and port of
Karachi offer.
"5. The middle section contains the City itself, the Cantonments and Civil Lines, while
the 3rd embraces Keamari, Manora, and the small villages known as the islands of Babà
aud Bhit.
e( 6. It is very necessary to distinguish these three sections at the outset, because each
required and received somewhat different treatment, especially the Trans-Lyari tract where,
as will be shown presently, we followed the Frontier system, and, under Miihomedan officers,
successfully carried out our plague measures by, ani through the influence o£ the headmen
and Mullahs.
"7. As might be expected, however, the disease first broke out in the City and it did not
cross (t. <?., no ease was reported) the Lyari until the 10th of January, the Napier Mole to
Keamari until the 7th of February, and the Harbour to Manora until the 9th of March.
" 8. I was on tour at Sehwan in the north of my district, when nine days after the report
of the first case, the permanent Medical Board, on the 19th of December, pronounced the plague
to be epidemic in Karachi.
" 0. It is only characteristic of the earnest endeavours made from the first by all the officers
concerned to carry the people with us, in our measures, that even prior to this announcement,
•viz., on the 17th idem, a Meeting of the heads of the Hindu communities was held, at which the
President, Secretary and Health Officer of the Municipality attended, in the house of Rao
Bahadur Alumal, the Deputy Educational Inspector of the District, and an influential citizen,
with a view to explaining to the people the benefits of segregation and treatment of the sick and
the necessity for cleanliness in their nouses and surroundings.
"10. As regards this Meeting, too, it is equally characteristic and significant of the pre-
judice and opposition with which all measures and advice were at first received, that Khan
Saheb Framroze, the Mukhtyarkar, in writing about it, remarks that all appeared to have no
effect, the inhabitants remaining 'obstinate as ever,' and 'instead of rendering any assistance/
l)eing ' in the way of the authorities/
"11. Moreover, on the clay previous to this meeting, the Municipal Health Officer had
addressed the Municipal President, representing the insufficiency of their existing· powers to cop«
with the difficulties, stating that he had ' already experienced opposition/ and that disinfection
of houses had been flatly refused.
" 12. On the 21st of December the Municipality held a General Meeting and on that clay
aud the 23rd idem, framed rules under {Section 73 of the Bombay District Municipal Act, for
the
(1) Entry into suspected houses.
(?) Disinfection and cleansing of houses.
(3) Destruction of infected articles.
(4) Compulsory notification, by medical practitioners, of the disease.
(5) Removal of the sick by order of certain officers.
" 13. On the 28th, Surgeon-Captain H. C. L. Arnim, the Deputy Sanitary Commissioner,
visited the town and made a careful examination of the measures which were being adopted in
the affected portions, reporting to the Sanitary Commissioner, Bombay, that ' as far as local
conditions allow, cleansing and disinfection were being efficiently and energetically carried out/
He also approved of the caste hospitals, which the different Hindu communities were preparing
for their sick, and of the hospital at M aehi-Miani, which the Municipality was erecting-, and the
isolation sheds provided in the same neighbourhood, and he adds that ' all appear to be working
with en orgy and system' and that the Municipal Commissioners are alive to the urgency o£ the
situation and anxious to follow out advice which is offered them.
" 14. The above clearly shows that the Municipal Officers lost no time in doing tneir best
to deal with the disease ; yet even in the Deputy Sanitary Commissioner's letter, the noto of
opposition, not only of the people but of some of the Municipal Commissioners themselves, is
ag-iiin sounded ; for he says 'there is marked opposition ' among them to the isolation ; which the
υ 1135—11