44
" 40. This with our later experience we should not have permitted. Nevertheless, as
I wrote when the Camp was closed,
e Whatever may be the final judgment as to its success
or failure as a protective measure against the disease '—and with that and the analysis
of its statistics I leave other others to deal—' the Nasarpuri Camp must ever be remember-
ed in the history of the Karachi plague as a most valuable measure of education, not only
to the people, but to the Plague authorities themselves/ for it undoubtedly paved the way
for the other Camps, which, under more careful conditions, yielded, as will be shown
subsequently, such excellent results.
"41. Negotiations were carried on with other sections of the Hindus, viz., the Serais
and Sahtas, and huts erected for them, but eventually they refused to occupy them and left
Karachi.
" 42. Flight, indeed, now became general, and was not confined to the Hindus, for the
Mahomedans also, abandoning their fatalism and their assurances that their religion bade
them face death and not fly from danger, also joined in it.
" 43. The movement was encouraged by all officials, and in the early part of January
the complete evacuation of the two worst quarters of the City, the ' Old Town ' and
' Machi-Meani/ was one of the main objects aimed at by us. At. the end of January ib
was roughly computed that 25,000 out of 105,000 people had left the town.
" 44. The country and hills outside Karachi, which are little better than a desert and very
thinly populated, afforded excellent ground for temporary settlements, and on the 28th of January
I held a meeting of Mahomedans for the special purpose of inducing them to camp out, and even
consented to assist some of the poorer ones with Local Fund money to build their huts at
Mangho Pir, where some SOO of them subsequently encamped.
"45. On the 26th of January Dr. Cleghorn, the Director-General o£ the Indian Medical
Service, visited Karachi in order to see the plague operations. His favourable opinion thereon is
recorded in a note accompanying Government Resolution No. Hr P v dated the 14th February
ι
.
o-7
**
last.
"46. By this time it had become apparent to the Commissioner, and to me, that it was
urgently necessary to increase materially the Municipal establishment engaged on disinfectin<*
and cleaning houses, and accordingly on the 28th January, 1, on the ground that the crisis in
Karachi was of paramount importance, recommended that 20 Munshis should be selected and
their services lent to the Municipality by the heads of the different districts in Sincl, includili σ
my own, and that in order to add weight to tlfeir influence, all who were not already Mao'istrates
and had passed the Magisterial Examination should be given magisterial powers.
"47. The Commissioner fully concurred in my proposal as also with my view, that the
Municipality required the pecuniary help which it involved, as well as the ministerial (vide
Commissioner's Circular No. 346, dated 28th idem). He therefore asked the different heads to
select the men, which they at once did, and signified his assent to their receiving a small
allowance from the Municipality.
" 48. Eventually, this allowance was fixed and sanctioned by the Municipality at Rs. 10, 15
and 30 per mensem, according as the men's salaries were under. 50 and 100 and over 100 rupees
per mensem respectively.
" 49. Work in the Karachi Customs House having shrunk considerably, owino· to the
injury to trade caused by the prevalence of the plague, the Commissioner next asked the
Collector of Customs to lend the services of some of his men, and five were placed at my dis-
posal. These, again, were subsequently added to by men from the Educational Department
whose schools were closed.
'
" 50. The deputation of these men led to the organization of the Plague Superintendent
and his cha,rge—a system which, aided by experience, developed gradually—until the Superin-
tendent became under the Plague Committee responsible for the entire sanitation of his division
the correct registration of all sickness due to plague, and of all deaths, the isolation of the sick and
the segregation of the healthy, the re-occupation of all houses, their sanitary condition aud the
effectual working of all the rules and orders passed under the Epidemic Diseases Aet and other
authority.
"ol. On the 30th January the _ Commissioner issued a memorandum sugo-estino- that
instead of the general supervision previously exercised, some such system shouldTbe instituted
;md a responsible head appointed to supervise different sections of the town, each with his own
staff of coolies, Mukadams and sweepers, and supply of disinfectants and apparatus.
fi 52. On the same date at a Conference held by me at the Kaeheri at which the Municir Ì
President, Secretary and Health Officer, the District Superintendent of Police and my Assista t
Mr. Lawrence, I.O.S., who had been engaged on plague work for some days, Mr. Cadell I C S
whose services had just been placed at my disposal, and other officers were present the aetu 1
details were decided on and thre.e establishments formed with Mr. Lawrence Mr ' ΓιΛρΐί
ι
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