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carried out on a most liberal scale in Gharibabad, where the plague continued to rage during
the first half of April.
Erection of camps.
6. The very early attention of the Plague Committee was given to the question of
providing accommodation outside the town, not only in segrega-
tion camps for those persons whom it was their duty to remove
from the town and keep under temporary restraint and observation, but also in health
camps for those who either would not or could not leave the town and get beyond the reach
of infection.
(1) New Sukkur Health and Segregation Camps.
It has already been mentioned that when the Plague Committee was first appointed
neither labour, supplies, nor materials could be locally procured, and that the only camp
in existence was the New Sukkur Segregation (or as it was then termed Health) Camp
consisting of 25 huts.
This camp was quite incapable of accommodating the increasing numbers of inmates
of infected houses whom the Superintendents now kept sending out of the town into
segregation, much less could the inmates of neighbouring houses, who it had now been
decided should also be segregated, find room in it. Mr. Gwyther, the Executive Engineer,
N.-W. Railway, and Mr. Rickie, the District Locomotive Superintendent, N.-W. Railway,
very kindly came to the rescue, and placed all their resources of labour and material at the
disposal of the Plague Committee.
The first thing was to enlarge the existing New Sukkur Segregation Camp, and lay
out an entirely new health camp 011 a separate site from the segregation camp, for the
accommodation of persons segregated from the neighbourhood of plague cases. By the
14th April 16 sleeper huts had been added to the existing segregation camp, and a health
camp of 52 sleeper huts had been completed. Water pipes had already been laid out to the
segregation camp, and two stand-pipes erected, and pipes and stand-pipes were also laid on
at the new health camp.
(2) Cooly Camp.
Simultaneously with the construction of a health camp and the enlargement of the
segregation camp, Mr. Gwyther was, at the request of the Plague Committee, erecting
blocks of sleeper huts for the accommodation of the Karachi masons and coolies on an open
site close to the railway and about 1 mile out of Sukkur. In all 16 blocks containing 160
units were built. Water-pipes were also laid on to this camp, and it was finished about
the middle of April. The inmates were medically examined every morning and evening.
(3} Gharibabad Health Camp.
In the first week of April, as the state of things in Gharibabad was becoming worse
and worse, and the inhabitants, who are for the most part of the poorest, could not leave
their houses and escape infection, it was decided to try the experiment of bodily transport-
ing those who remained to a camp outside the town.
The Executive Engineer, N.-W. Railway, undertook to provide accommodation for the
purpose, and by 15th April a camp consisting of 102 sleeper huts and capable of holding
com 500 to 600 people had been completed and water laid on.
The removal of Gharibabad and the complete success of the experiment will be
described in the next paragraph.
(4) Limji's Charhi Camp.
After moving the Gharibabad people out into the camp, it was decided to do the same
with the people still left in a part of New Sukkur known as Limji's Charhi who num-
bered about 300. A new camp consisting of 31 sleeper huts was therefore built for the
purpose close to the health camp on the Saidabad Road. As the health camp was
practically empty by the time the new camp was ready for the Limji's Charhi people, the
few remaining occupants were moved into this new camp, and the health camp, with its
52 huts, was used for the Limji Charhi people. They were moved in on 26th April.
(5) Sweepers' Camp.
In the latter part of March and at the beginning of April the mortality among the
Municipal sweepers had been very heavy.
No fewer than 11 cases of plague had occurred among them. By the 20th April a
camp, consisting of 58 sleeper huts, was built for them outside the town to the west of
Gharibabad, and after they had all been given a new suit of clothes they were with their
families, numbering in all 104 persons, moved into this camp.
They were medically inspected every day, but no fresh case of plague occurred among
them.