§ MR. ONSLOWI beg to ask the noble Lord the Under Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs a Question of which I have given him private Notice—Whe- 42 ther Dr. Hunter has yet started for Egypt; and, whether, the noble Lord is in a position now to make any further statements regarding the Special Commission and the position of English medical officers in Egypt?
§ LORD EDMOND FITZMAURICEYes, Sir; Dr. Hunter has started, and I may add that Mr. Mieville, the English Delegate on the Egyptian Joint Sanitary Board, and Dr. Mackie, the consulting English Physician who attends that Board, have been attached to the Commission, and I feel that their great local experience will be of the greatest value to Dr. Hunter. I am also glad to inform the House that the Egyptian Government are not only ready, but anxious, to avail themselves of the services of Dr. Hunter.
LORD HENRY LENNOXI wish to ask the noble Lord a Question, of which I was only able just now to give him private Notice. It is, Whether the attention of the Government has been called to the facts related by the Special Correspondent of The Standard this morning from Cairo, who says, with regard to the alarming spread of cholera in Cairo, that the mode of conducting funerals in that city directly contributes to the rapid spread of contagion; that the bodies are carried through the streets in coffins of the slightest construction; that the clothes of those who died of cholera in hospital are sent home for the relations to wear, and thus further spread the disease; also, whether it is true that patients are carried to the hospital in Cairo without any attempt at precaution; whether some poor creatures have died in the open streets with a gaping crowd looking on; and, whether the noble Lord will at once telegraph instructions to Cairo with the view of putting an end to this state of things?
§ LORD EDMOND FITZMAURICESir, I make no complaint of my noble Friend having asked this Question without previous Notice, because I know the painful interest with which this subject is being watched, not only in this House, but throughout the country. I cannot, of course, answer, in reply to this Question, as to how far the details mentioned by my noble Friend in it are accurate or not; but, unfortunately, every Member of this House—and there are many—who has travelled in the East knows 43 only too well how very defective sanitary arrangements are, and especially with what very great and lamentable carelessness, according to European ideas, funerals and burials are conducted in these countries. I may, however, assure my noble Friend and the House that the attention of the Representatives of Her Majesty's Government on the spot has been already called to these subjects, and they have instructions to press upon the Egyptian Government the great importance of attending to all these subjects, because, as I informed the House the other day, it is upon strict attention to sanitary laws and arrangements, and not to cordons, or lazarettos, or quarantine measures of that kind, that Her Majesty's Government look for a suppression of this terrible disease now raging in Egypt. Considering, however, the very great gravity of the statements contained in the paragraph alluded to, I shall make it my special and immediate duty to call Sir Edward Malet's attention to these statements, and, no doubt, he will direct his attention in a peculiar degree to the necessity of impressing upon the Egyptian Government the desirableness of attending to these subjects, and to the cases described in the telegram. I may, however, mention that, naturally, these are the points to which Dr. Hunter's attention will be immediately devoted upon his arrival; although, at the same time, the pressure which Her Majesty's Government can bring to bear upon the Egyptian Government must, in the first place, be exercised through their diplomatic Representatives, and not through Dr. Hunter himself. I hope this will be considered a satisfactory statement, and that the House will realize that everything is being done that can be done to assist the Egyptian Government, although, at the same time, I must warn the House that, in our view, nothing would be more likely to lead to the spread of the disease than if it were thought by the Egyptian Government that 'Her Majesty's Government were going to take into their own hands the stamping out of the disease; for in that case, I believe, the only result would be that the Egyptian Government would put upon the shoulders of Her Majesty's Government the whole responsibility now justly resting on them, and Her Majesty's Government clearly have not at present the requisite staff or necessary 44 means to undertake that responsibility. What Her Majesty's Government has to do is to bring pressure upon the Egyptian Government.
§ VISCOUNT FOLKESTONEMay I ask the noble Lord, Whether he has any reason to believe that the statement made in the papers to-day is true, to the effect that deaths from cholera are far more numerous than is officially reported by the Egyptian Government?
§ LORD EDMOND FITZMAURICESir, I cannot, of course, give a precisely accurate answer as to the number of deaths. All I can do is simply to place before the House the telegrams giving the official Returns from time to time. But I can assure the noble Viscount that I am no implicit believer in the necessary truth of every figure that is officially published, and I believe there are unrecorded deaths in the great cities, where statistical information is imperfect.