Page 147 - The Persian Gulf Historical Summaries (1907-1953) Vol IV_Neat

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whipping tin: unnecessary nml prejudicial restrictions
that would rcHiill (roin the latter sclicmo.
" If tliiR view should meet with acceptance, I would
urge that stops should bo taken to put the scheme I
have suggested in operation with all possible speed. I
view the alternative ‘sentinel station' project with
apprehension, as calculated to be ineffective, expensive,
and gravely detrimental to commercial interests—and
these arc nmiuly British—in the Gulf. Abandonment of
this 'sentinel station' project is much more likely to
follow on knowledge that defensive measures, of the kiud
and at the places I have indicated, arc in actual opera­
tion than on incro announcement that such measures
are in contemplation.’'
Dr. Thomson’s views ns to the “ sentinel
station ” wero adopted by Ifis Majesty’s Govern­
ment, and the Trench Government were in­
formed that the Persian proposals wore inac-
ceplablc, a decision which was in duo course
communicated to Persia and to the other parties
to the Convention.
Sir 0. Snring-Rico Sir C. Spring-Rice at the end of 1900 »:x-
January IP/iIot. Pained the position to Dr. Schneider, President
of the Tehran Sanitary Council,* who promised
to do his best to prevent the question being
again raised. Dr. Schneider observed, how­
ever, that it would greatly facilitate his task,
should the matter be brought before the
Sanitary Council, if the Government of India
would consent to improve the conditions under
which quarantine measures were at present
carried out in the Gulf, i.e., by increasing the
European personnel and by supplying disin­
fection stoves and rat-destroying apparatus at
each of the five ports (viz., Mohammerah,
Bushirc, Lingah, Bunder Abbas, and Jask),
instead of al Bushire only. Dr. Schneider added
that the Persian Government had not the neces­
sary funds at their disposal, and that the expense
would necessarily full on the Indian Govern­
ment.
B.
It will be convenient at this stage to give a
brief account of the quarantine system hitherto
administered in the Persian Gulf by officers of
• Tliia body was instituted by the Shah in 1904 as a
result of tlio cholera panic. It. comprises the European
physicians of tho Shah as well as several Logation physicians
and Persian doctors. Its functions are purely advisory, and
it has neither funds nor executive of any sort under its
control.

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