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A Bania's shop was provided at each camp, and free rations were in most cases given to
the inmates. It was left to the discretion of the Plague Superintendent to note on the pass
with which he sent the people to the camp, whether or no they were entitled to receive free
rations. It was the rule that all who depended for their livelihood on some occupation which
would be interrupted by their detention in camp should receive free rations.
Mr. Shoukising, Divisional Forest Officer, arranged for supplies and superintended their
distribution at all different camps, not only the segregation and health camps, and fixed the
rates at which different articles should be sold. Those entitled to free rations were at first
supplied with daily doles of certain articles, but it was soon found to be a more convenient and
popular arrangement to make a daily money allowance to each person and let him purchase
what he wanted at the camp shop. The allowances were 4 annas for a man, 3 annas for a woman
and 2 annas for a child. Liquor and opium were supplied to those who were accustomed to
them.
Before leaving the camp each person was again washed in phenyle and his clothes were
re-disinfected.
The largest number of persons in the segregation camp on any one day was 143 on 13th
April and in the health camp 182 on 11th April.
Plague in Old Sukkur and mea-
sure» taken for its suppression.
11, As Old Sukkur is about a mile distant from New Sukkur and more healthily situ-
ated and less crowded, and inhabitants are better to do than those
of New Sukkur, it is not surprising that the plague was slow in
making its appearance there, and that for a long time only im-
ported cases from New Sukkur occurred. A great many Old Sukkur people carry on business
in New Sukkur by day and return to their houses in Old Sukkur at night, and these were the
people who were first attacked. During March there were 19 cases, all of this kind.
The cases which occurred at the beginning of April were also declared by the people of Old
Sukkur to be imported cases. But the police cordon had been established on 3rd April 1897
and communication absolutely stopped between the two towns, and therefore this theory cannot
be accepted, and the way in which most cases after 1st April occurred in houses near other houses
in which cases of plague had previously occurred, proved that the disease had at last become
local.
The opening of the Old Sukkur Plague Hospital on March 25th has already been
mentioned.
Up to the end of March persons segregated in plague cases had been sent to a small camp
consisting of 5 huts near the hospital. But the accommodation here was inadequate, and as the
Plague Committee considered a severe outbreak to be not improbable, sites for two new camps,
one a segregation camp and the other a health camp, were selected and huts run up with the
least possible delay.
Mr. Gwyther kindly undertook the construction of the segregation camp which consisted
of 26 sleeper huts, and lay between the hospital and the railway, while the health camp was
taken in hand by a local contractor, and consisted of 10 large mat and mud plaster sheds under
trees on the bank of the Sukkur Canal. On 8th May as the sleeper huts which lay in a hollow
out of the wind, and under the railway embankment, were found unbearably hot, the segrega-
tion camp was removed to a shady site at the mouth of the Sukkur Canal where mat and mud
plaster sheds had been erected for the purpose.
The arrangements for provisioning and guarding the Old Sukkur camps and for
latrines and disinfection were exactly the same as those at the New Sukkur camps. Persons
were sent there by the Plague Superintendent of Old Sukkur under the same system of
passes, and the same kind of registers were also kept. There was a staff of 1 Hospital
Assistant and 1 Superintendent, besides the usual complement of Bhisties, sweepers and
Kahars. Two cases occurred in the segregation and one in the health camp (vide table in
paragraph 9 above).
The largest number of inmates on any one day was 86 at the health camp on 11th
June, and 26 at the segregation camp on 12th May.
Rao Saheb Kimatsing, Mukhtiárkar of Sukkur, acted as Plague Superintendent of Old
Sukkur until 3rd April. Lieutenant Pagan, 6th Bombay Cavalry, was in charge from 4th to
12th April. He was succeeded by Lieutenant Leith, 6th Bombay Cavalry, who remained in
charge until 25th April, and from that date until the disappearance of the plague from Old
Sukkur, Lieutenant Beadon, Wiltshire Regiment, was in charge, assisted first by Rao Saheb
Kimatsing and afterwards by Rao Bahádur Chandumal, Huzur Deputy Collector.
Trained gangs under trained Inspectors were attached to the Plague Superintendent'
and his staff was so strong that the houses in which cases of plague occurred and the neigh-
bouring houses, the inmates of which were sent to the health camp, were always cleaned
and disinfected on the day of the occurrence of the cases.
The Plague Superintendent of Old Sukkur, besides directing segregation and cleaning and
disinfection work, was in charge of the two camps and also superintended the sanitation of the
town. After the departure of Lieutenant Beadon on 15th June, Rao Bahadur Chandumal