§ SIR ANDREW SCOBLE (Hackney, Central)I beg to ask the Secretary of State for India what steps have been taken by the Government of Bombay to deal with the bubonic plague now prevalent in that Presidency; and whether he has approved of the measures which have been adopted?
§ THE SECRETARY OF STATE FOR INDIA (Lord GEORGE HAMILTON,) Middlesex, EalingThe extreme gravity of the subject to which my hon. Friend's 285 Question refers will justify me in making a longer reply than is usual to ordinary Questions. ["Hear, hear!"] The plague was identified at Bombay in September last. On the 2nd of October wide powers were conferred on the chief executive officer of the city, who is a Government official, to take whatever measures were found necessary to prevent the epidemic from spreading. Large, sums of money were voted for the purpose by the Corporation. The Government appointed a special Medical Committee to investigate and advise; scientific experts came from other parts of India to report upon the disease and its prevention; while additional medical men and a large staff of workers were employed to carry out at once the special sanitary measures in Bombay advocated by the Committee of experts. The epidemic appeared to be abating in November, but from the 1st of December it grew more severe. The plague spread to Karachi in December, and is now suspected to be epidemic in Poona. Over 2,500 plague deaths have occurred in Bombay, over 300 in Karachi, and about 100 sporadic cases elsewhere. As the House is aware from newspaper telegrams, the plague has caused much terror among the people of Bombay and in the adjacent country, but the disease has not so far appeared in epidemic form at any place besides Poona outside the cities of Bombay and Karachi. The sporadic cases of which I spoke, excepting at Poona, occurred almost entirely among fugitives from the two plague-stricken cities. The efforts of the Government and of the corporation, between whom hearty co-operation exists, were devoted to relieving sufferers from the, plague, to checking its extension in Bombay and Karachi, and to preventing its spread elsewhere. Hospital space was increased, special plague hospitals were provided for six different sections of the community and are being prepared for two oilier sections. House-to-house visitation of infected quarters is being carried out under medical supervision, Every suspected case of plague that is not at once removed to the hospital is isolated as far as practicable. Every house where a plague case has occurred is disinfected, and is, as far as possible, vacated, temporary accommodation being provided elsewhere. Insanitary houses are pulled 286 down, in others partitions are removed or ventilation introduced. Special sanitary precautions and improvements have been carried out in the backward parts of Bombay city. A fuller staff of doctors and Indian medical men is being organised, and the Bombay Government will indent on England for a temporary staff of doctors and nurses, if more aid is required. To prevent the spread of the plague to other parts of India, passengers leaving Bombay, Karachi, or Poona by rail, road, or sea, are inspected by medical officers, and persons travelling or alighting at the larger stations are stopped and removed for treatment if they are suspected of being plague stricken. In case pilgrims to the Moslem holy places might carry plague into the Bed Sea, the Government of India have—as empowered by law—declared that from February 1 Bombay and Karachi shall cease for the present to be ports of departure for pilgrims. The Bombay Government report that the corporations are granting all necessary funds, while the executive and medical officers there and elsewhere are doing all that can be done, though prompt suppression of the epidemic has not been attained. The Government of India report their belief that the arrangements at railway stations for checking the spread of disease are working well; but they are inquiring whether further measures are needed, which, if necessary, will be given. I believe that these remedial and precautionary measures are daily becoming more stringent and more effective; neither self-sacrificing work nor money is being stinted. If it has been difficult to secure the co-operation of some sections of the Indian population to promote the sanitary and preventive measures for the arrest and stamping out of this pestilence, yet in other quarters loyal assistance and effective self-help have been displayed. I am hopeful that the continuous energy and vigilance shown by the Government and the local authorities, and the rigorous measures they have adopted, are beginning to make real impression upon that epidemic, and that we may for the future note its decline. I should add that the experts some time back expressed the view that during the winter months some increase in the epidemic might be expected. As 287 I came into the House I received a telegram from the Governor of Bombay to the effect that he learns that alarmist and greatly exaggerated telegrams in reference to plague are being sent from Bombay, and he hopes that great caution will be shown before accepting the information as true. Only four pure Europeans have died of the plague, including a doctor and a nurse. Amongst the dock labourers and Fort Trust servants, the deaths and sickness are very small indeed.
§ Mr. J. M. MACLEAN (Cardiff)asked whether the noble Lord was aware that both the Sanitary Commissioner and the Health Officer of Bombay had frequently protested against the imperfect sanitary arrangement of that city, and whether any measures had been taken to remedy an admitted evil?
§ LORD GEORGE HAMILTONI understand that as far as practicable efforts are made to improve the sanitary conditions of the native quarters, but I am afraid until the epidemic is over it will not be possible to embark on a wholesale measure for that purpose.
§ SIR ANDREW SCOBLEasked the Secretary of State for India a question of which he had given him private notice—namely, whether he could give the House any recent information as to the number of persons employed on relief works in India?
§ LORD GEORGE HAMILTONThe latest telegram I have received on the subject is from the Viceroy and is dated January 22. It reads as follows:—
Famine, Rain during week in affected districts, from one to three inches in Punjab except the Delhi division, few light showers elsewhere, Condition of standing crops fair to good in Central Provinces, Behar, North-West Provinces, except in Bundelkhand districts. In affected districts of Bombay, crops are suffering from want of rain. Prices have fallen slightly in Northern Punjab, stationary elsewhere. On relief:—Punjab,70,000; North-Western Provinces, 795,000; Central India,42,000; Rajputana, 28,000; Bengal, 278,000; Burma, 30,000; Madras, 29,000; Bombay, 265,000; Central Provinces, 211,000; total, 1,750,000. In Bombay apparent increase due in part to omission of non-working children in former reports.