§ SIR CHARLES CAYZER (Barrow-in-Furness)To ask the Secretary of State for India whether he has received the Report of the Commission appointed by the Government of India to inquire into the cause of the Molkowal disaster, in the Punjaub, where nineteen people died of tetanus after plague inoculation and, if so, will he state what action he intends to take on the recommendation of the Commission with a view to re-establishing confidence in anti-plague inoculation; and will he lay the Papers before the House.
(Answered by Secretary Lord George Hamilton)The Report has reached me and is under consideration. It is confined to ascertaining the circumstances which led to the issue of impure plague prophylactic from the Bombay laboratory in the autumn of 1902, and the persons responsible for the same. The question of process to be used in future for the preparation of the fluid, or of the organisation of the laboratory, was not referred to the Commission, and is not dealt with in their Report. Measures had previously been taken by the Government to re-establish confidence by reverting to the former method of preparing the prophylactic, amid by strengthening the staff of the laboratory. At the present stage I am unable to state what orders will be issued upon the Report, or whether the Papers can be laid before the House.