DR. RUTHERFORDTo ask the Secretary of State for India whether the recommendations to the Indian Government by Professor Simpson, late medical officer of health to Calcutta, to introduce 1385 a special sanitary service composed of Indian medical men and women supervised by European experts, and repeated in his work on plague, have been carried out to stay and prevent the ravages of plague.
(Answered by Mr. Secretary Morley.) I would refer my hon. friend to the published Resolution of the Government of India, dated 8th September, 1904, creating the office of Sanitary Commissioner, in which is described the action taken by them in various schemes for the constitution of a separate sanitary service, and the difficulties, financial and administrative, in the way of an effective and speedy reorganisation. Much has been done to strengthen and improve the existing sanitary agency at the disposal of local governments, especially in districts where plague is liable to occur. The subject is still engaging the anxious consideration of the Government.