Page 84 - PERSIAN 9 1931_1940

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It is interesting to note that the various girders supporting the roof arc of
French or Belgium manufacture and were supplied by Messrs. Andrew Weir and
Company of Basrah, a British Firm.
(c) On 3rd November Dr. Storm arrived from Muscat via Basrah.
(/) The Reverend Mr. Van Ess accompanied by Mrs. Van Ess and Mr. Moordyk
arrived from Basrah on 10th November.
(g) The Reverend Mr. Pennings and the Reverend Mr. I Taken arrived from Bah­
rain on 10th November.
Note.—Tho annual mooting which is hold overy year at ono of tho Porsinn Gulf Ports, too’c placo at,
Kuwait botwcon 10th and 30th of Novombor.
At the conclusion of the meeting the various persons who had come up for it
left for their respective stations.
(h) Dr. C. S. G. Mylrea, O.B.E., left for Basrah on 19th November and returned
on 20th November.
(i) On 13th December the youngest child of the Reverend DeJong died sudden­
ly from the effects of pneumonia.
As the local Christian Cemetery was quite an unfit place in its existing state to
take a burial, the parents decided to convey the body to Basrah by car for inter­
ment. The Political Agent made all necessary arrangements with the Iraq
authorities through His Britannic Majesty's Consul, Basrah, and the body was got
across the frontier with a minimum of trouble and formality.
(j) The fanatical agitation raised against the Mission early in the year has
been dealt with under Head Foreign Interests. (Paragraph VI).

XVI.—Quarantine.
(a) Though no epidemic of any kind occurred in Kuwait during 1931 there was
a severe outbreak of cholera in epidemic form in the neighbouring country of
Iraq, principally in the town of Basrah. Three cases were reported in Basrah on
28th July from the S.S. “ Kohistan ” of which two died. No further cases occurred
till the ni gilt of 7th August, but from then onwards the epidemic raged with great
severity til1 the 10th November.
(b) Kuwait being in communication by land and sea with Iraq and being the
gateway to Eastern and Central Arabia, quarantine restrictions were immediately
introducedjand rigidly enforced as a protection not only to the Principality and town
of Kuwait but to prevent the infection being carried into Arabia, where dire results
would have been inevitable.
(c) Communication with Iraq by land is by motor cars, and as many of the in­
habitants of this town visit Basrah on business, and as the epidemic occurred during
the height of the date season, cars were running to and for daily. Such passen­
gers had to be inspected, their inoculation certificates seen through, and vigorous
measures adopted to keep the town from becoming infected through them. Some­
times as many as 4 carloads of passengers had to be examined at once and .as the
Quarantine Station is situated a mile outside the town wall, this necessitated
frequent visit by the Quarantine Medical Officer in the height of the summer with
the temperature reading 117°F.
(d) In addition the sea route held further possibilities of an infection being
brought into the town, as steamers, launches and dhows constantly ply between the
two ports. The Quarantine Medical Officer inspected and imposed restrictions on all
steamers, launches and dhows arriving from Basrah, and when one realizes how
many sailing vessels put into Kuwait in a day, one can guess the immense amount
of work that falls to the lot of a conscientious Quarantine Medical Officer if a town
like Kuwait to be kept free from a disease of the nature of cholera.
(e) The writer lias no hesitation in saying that if the Quarantine Medical
Officer had not carried out his duties as rigidly and conscientiously as he did, the
disease would certainly have found its way into the town, and would inevitably
have spread into the interior with considerable lo.ss of life.
(/) Cholera is almost always endemic in Iraq and an epidemic very often breaks
out in various forms of intensity during the summer months of each year. This isi
standing menace to contiguous places like Kuwait, and one does not care to think