Page 544 - PERSIAN 4 1899_1905

2 ADMINIBTBATION REPORT ON TI1K PERSIAN GULP POLITICAL
district generally, remained in a very disorderly state. It was even thought at
one period that Bunder Abbas itself might he raided, and though this did not
actually occur, caravan traffic -was practically brought to a standstill for somo
week8. The apparent causo of this insecurity was the dissemination from the
capital of disquieting rumours regarding tho health of His Majesty tho Shah,
reports which happily turned out to' liave little foundation, but which always
eoom to furnish tho turbulent section of the community with an excuse for
a display of lawlessness.
Quarantine and Public Health.—The Quarantine Administration of the
Island of Bushirc and the Gulf Ports has continued to be administered on
behalf of the Persian Government by the British Residency Surgeons, under
whose supervision European Assistant Surgeons of the Government of India are
employed as Quarantine Medical Oflicers at the Gulf Ports of Mohammerah,
Lingah, and Bunder Abbas.
The accommodation for upper class passengers, European and Native,
‘at Lingah and Bunder Abbas leaves much to be desired, but repeated representa­
tions to the Central Government have not yet been fruitful of result.
Tho Island and Port of Busbire is the Residency Surgeon’s special care
as heretofore and in co-operation with him the Persian Customs Administration,
which is now responsible for the disbursement of the expenses of sanitary
preventive measures, continued to assist in tho work.
In January 1905, Dr. Faivre, a French Sanitary Expert, connected with
the Paris Sanitary Convention, having been deputed to make a tour of tho Gulf
ports and to examine the preventive arrangements there existing, arrived in
Bushire and after making a short stay visited Mohammerah, Bunder Abbas,
Ormuz, and Henjam.
Epidemics.—During the summer of 1904- the whole region lying within the
purview of tho Residency was visited by disease in a more or less severe
epidemic form, the port of Bunder Abbas being the only locality which on this
occasion was spared a visitation.
- Plague was the first to make its appearance and during May and June
threatened to beoome epidemic on the coast and hinterland of Southern Fare.
Numerous cases occurred in Lingah and the inhabitants, taking alarm, com­
menced to migrate inland in large numbers and thus carried the infection with
them, with the result that the disease was soon reported from the Lar district.
At this time there seemed good grounds to fear a widespread epidemic of
plague, but curious to relate, as soon as cholera, which had meanwhile made
Us appearance, had gained a footing, very little more was heard of plague, and
the latter pest gradually died out without assuming serious proportions.
Cholera, which had already appeared at Bussorah, now spread southwards.
Early in May Mohammerah and Bahrein became affected and the authorities
at Bushire realised the necessity of instituting special preventive measures
if Bushire was not to share the fate of its aster ports in the Gulf.
The epidemic seems to have generated in Turkish Arabia or Mesopotamia
and to have travelled from thence into Persia over two well-marked circular
routes, one entering northwards via Kerman shah, Tehran, and Ispahan, and the
other bom the south, penetrating Fan through some of the small unprotected
coast ports, and after spreading contagion in Tangistan generally, making its
way north by the caravan road between Bushire andShirai.
Ispahan was probably the point on the circuit where the northern current
from Kum and Tehran met the southern current from the coast of Ears and
ttiiiaa.
At Shiraz, the capital of Fare, the epidemic was especially severe, though
happily not of very long duration. The total mortality was assessed at from
7,WX) to 10,000 scmiIs, and when the disease was at its height, the death-roll
believed to have touched 1,000 per diem. The fact that the inhabitants obtain
their drinking water from watercourses passing through the crowded streets of
the city, which arc used fir all and sundry-purposes, probably accounts for tb®
readiness of fthiraz to assimilate the germ arid as, owing to the virulence of

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