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(c) The Plague Committee.
4. On the 30th March 1897 the Commissioner in Sind announced that he
had, in anticipation of sanction, appointed Lieutenant-Colonel Mayhew (Collec-
tor of Shikárpur), Mr. W. H. Lucas, I. C. S., and Mr. \V. A. Ingle (Secretary
of the Sukkur Municipality), a Plague Committee for the suppression of the
plague within the municipal limits of Sukkur and Rohri and the adjoining
tálukas. This appointment was communicated to Government by telegram
and was legalized by Government Resolution 1750 A.P., dated 30th March 1897,
and which gave the Committee powers similar to those conferred on Committees
previously appointed, and in addition empowered them to spend Local Fand
money.
5. A sketch of the work of the Committee is given in Chapter 2 of their
report, which is quoted in full below :
"History of the Plague in Sukkur Town from the appointment of the Plague Committee
on 31st March to the dale of the submission of this Report.
Preliminary remarks.
1. By 31st March, from which date the Plague Committee came into existence, the popu-
lation or New Sukkur and Gharibadad was reduced to at most
2,000 souls. Everybody who could afford to leave had long ago
done so, and only the very poor, or those, such as Government or Municipal servants, who were
absolutely compelled to stay, were left. Cases were occurring in New Sukkur and Gharibabad
at the rate or about 20 a day. The population of the European and Railway quarters was still
almost normal, and so far very few cases had occurred in them. Paragraphs 62 to 69 of
Mr. Ingle's report describe the abject state of panic prevailing in and around Sukkur, and the
impossibility of procuring either supplies or labour.
Procural of skilled labour from
Karachi.
2. As it had been found very difficult to keep abreast of the work of cleaning and dis-
infecting plague houses, and as the rapid spread of the disease to
every part of the town in which people still lingered showed that
it would be necessary to disinfect the whole town before it could
be fit for re-occupation, the Committee decided to import a number of skilled masons and coolies
from Karáchi. So 312 coolies and masons, mostly Mekranis and Pathans, were sent up in two
batches to Sukkur from Karachi (where they had already been employed in cleaning plague
houses). Mr. Cadell, I. C. S., who had had great experience of plague work in Karáchi, and had
been deputed to Sukkur on special duty on 29th March, was asked to organise gangs for the
systematic cleaning and disinfection of the town.
Division of the town into quar-
ters each in charge of a Plague
Superintendent.
3. Up to the end of March, New Sukkur had been divided into three quarters, with Messrs-
Marston, Harrison and Dracup for Superintendents, and Ghariba-
bad had been in charge of Ráo Bahadur Dewanmal, the Collector's
Daftardar, assisted latterly by Bao Sáheb Rochiram, City Magis-
trate. But it was found that as the plague spread, these divisions
were unwieldy, and therefore New Sukkur was redivided into four new quarters with Messrs.
Harrison, Hayter and Dracup and Lieutenant Leith for Plague Superintendents, while Mr. Cadell
took over the whole of Gharibabad and had Ráo Sáheb Rochiram, the City Magistrate, under
him as an Addtional Superintendent The division of the town into quarters is shown in the
map of Sukkur which accompanies the report.
Cleaning and disinfecting of the
town.
4. Each Plague Superintendent was given six gangs of coolies and masons. The gangs
were under Plague Inspectors, who were generally school mas-
ters and other Municipal employés or Tapadars and Munshis of
the Revenue Department. Six trained Inspectors were sent for
from Karachi, and these were at first told off to instruct the untrained Inspectors A special
Inspector was attached to each Superintendent to act as pay Munshi and Personal Assistant.
Three police orderties were at first attached to each Superintendent, to assist in the work of
segregation, but when the plague abated and the few surviving people in the town had been
moved outside into camps, these were withdrawn.
As the correct method of cleaning and disinfecting houses in which cases of plague had
occurred was not understood by the Inspectors, and it had not been the custom to make any
preliminary disinfection of a house before the Inspectors and coolies entered it (which circum-
stance no doubt partly accounts for the strangely large number of deaths from plague that
occurred in the early clays of the plague among those engaged in cleaning operations), instruc-
tions on this point were drawn up by Mr. Cadell and printed and issued to the Inspectors.
The following were the principal details to be observed in cleaning and disinfecting all
houses,
for all houses were treated as plague houses :—
(1) The floors and walls were first thoroughly sprayed before entrance with the
syringe filled with a solution of perchloride of mercury (1—1000),
B 1135—31