§ Mr. KEIR HARDIEasked the Under-Secretary of State for Inda if he would state what are the latest returns to hand 2679W concerning the plague in India; the districts most affected; and whether the death-rate is declining?
§ Mr. MONTAGUThe virulence of the epidemic normally increases each year during the cold weather and diminishes rapidly when the hot season sets in in April. During the present cold weather it has been more severe than in any of the last three years, notwithstanding the Tact that 1910 showed a very large increase over 1909 and 1908. Deaths last month numbered 88,498. The disease is worst in the United Provinces, South-Eastern Punjab, and Western Bengal. It is, I need hardly add, a matter for profound concern to the Government that this disease does not show much sign of permanent improvement despite the persistent, and I may truly say heroic, efforts of our doctors and administrators.