20
" Surgeon-Major-General Cleghorn 'seems to have been under a misapprehension as.
regards the idea with which the influential Native Practitioners mentioned signed the memo-
randum, copy of which was forwarded with the above quoted despatch. The following
signatories—Dr. Nariman, Dr. Βhalchandra Krishna, Dr. Ismail Jan Mahomed—have clearly
informed me that they signed the memorandum on the distinct understanding that no
compulsion was to be used, and acquainted as they are with the people and the effects which
would follow a general attempt at compulsory removal, it is impossible to conceive that
they could have subscribed to the memorandum with any such views in their minds. It is
probable that several of the other signatories would express themselves in a similar manner,
and that segregation of this kind could only be effected by compulsion admits of no doubt.
I must here draw the attention of Government to the discrepancy in the views
recently expressed by the Bight Honourable the Secretary of State for India and the Gov-
ernment of India. The former suggested wholesale segregation of the sick, the latter has
suggested segregation of the healthy.
As regards the latter course, I would point out that at the lowest computation some
30,000 persons would be affected belonging to different races, castes and creeds. Mutual
contact with one another would be regarded with the greatest abhorrence, and I know of
no site within the limits of the Bombay Municipality which would accommodate a tenth
of this number. The Bombay Government is aware with what great difficulty such
attempts at segregation as have been possible and the limited success that has attended
them, have been achieved. Fear of the plague and fear of segregation or being taken to
hospitals and huts (the mass of the people do not differentiate on this head) has caused a
general exodus of the population, and the most reliable calculations available lead to the
conclusion that some 300,000 people had left up to the middle of January.
The gentlemen who signed the memorandum and expressed themselves to the effect
f that there will be no difficulty in providing sufficient and suitable accommodation for
people removed from infected houses ; and that it only requires the concurrence and
sympathy of the leaders of the different sections of the community to render the plan
proposed by them a success/ do not appear to have given any serious thought to the matter
under discussion. I have carefully considered the question of a very large camp of this
kind with the Commissioner of Police and the Executive Engineer, and we are all unani-
mous as to the fact that no extensive site can be found inside the boundaries of the city.
Then follows the question of constructing say 6,000 huts at a place, if such a one could be
found, several miles beyond municipal limits and beyond the jurisdiction of the Bombay Muni-
cipality. Experience in putting up small numbers of huts has shown us that under present
conditions with a scarcity of material and labour such a work could not be put through under three
months. Supposing the camp erected no one will go there except under compulsion and the
furniture and effects would have to go too. If with the use of a large military force it were
possible to get all the healthy people from infected houses into the camp, the whole object of
the arrangement would be defeated if they were not watched and kept to the camp as long as
might be necessary. They would thus be deprived of their means of livelihood and have to be
maintained at an enormous cost. Then there would be the sanitary question and the utter
impossibility of getting the requisite number of sweepers. I may also point out that there is
no law which would permit such forcible segregation, and it is an almost absolute certainty that
plague would break out in a camp constituted of such residents and under such conditions. It
would also be necessary to provide a camp and sustenance for say at least 2,000 troops to drive
and watch the people.
As to the leaders of the sections of the communities referred to none ha ve been found during
the last four months. There are many rich men, but they have no large following or influence
and what is more, Avould be the first to oppose any move of this kind. The only real leader
with power and influence that I can mention at the present time is His Highness Aga Khan, and
his community would represent a small fraction only.
It is necessary to consider the matter from another point of view. Directly it became
known that any such camp was being got ready and that people were to be taken there a fur-
ther general panic and stampede from Bombay would take place. The municipal sweepers,
bigarris, and working staff, who have only been kept together by extraordinary efforts, would
immediately take fright and leave the place. Those who know can best imagine what Bombay
would be, bereft of sweepers : the city would be weltering in its own sewage, x all the extended
and important sanitary works adopted for the suppression of the plague would come to an end
trade would be further paralysed, and the city involved in a catastrophe of appalling dimensions.
I can only warn Government of my own knowledge and also on the opinions of those com-
petent to judge that this is the certain result of an attempt at such segregation,, and however
much the term may be glossed over with euphemistic and vague expressions, it simply means
segregation by military force.
I will leave it to Government tg judge how far the statement that the measures taken
have failed to arrest the progress of the disease is correct, but I do not think that the experi-
ences in Màndvi Bandar, Cleveland Bandar, and Kàmathipura would warrant such a conclusion.
Government will understand that in replying to a communication of this kind I feel it my
duty to speak with no uncertain voice, and that although I have given the most careful and