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2. The detection and removal of cases of infectious disease are clearly
in the interests of the shipowner, who would possibly, or even probably, if
an outbreak of infectious disease occurred on board, be put to the expense
of detention in quarantine at foreign ports.
3. The isolation and removal of cases of infectious disease and
subsequent measures of disinfection are the duties of the Port Sanitary
Authority in the interests of the public health.
4. If these people are landed at Gravesend or Tilbury they are thrown
entirely upon their own resources, and should the child be suffering from a
disease, which although infectious, as, for example, Whooping Cough, but
which is not a dangerous infectious disorder within the meaning of the
Public Health (London) Act, 1891, or should the Port Sanitary Hospital
not have accommodation for such cases, or should it be thought not
advisable to take the patients into the Hospital, the onus of dealing with
the friends of the patient is thrown upon the Local Authority, a
responsibility they are likely to object to.
Inasmuch as Section 307 (4) implies that in some cases such persons may
be landed, and if lodged and maintained in any hulk or establishment under
the superintendence of the Board of Trade, shall receive from the master of
the ship subsistence money, it would appear that the Act contemplates that
the Board of Trade should make some provisions for dealing with such persons.
Much correspondence on the question passed between your Worshipful
Committee and the Board of Trade. Your Worshipful Committee pointed
out that the medical inspection of emigrants by the Board of Trade took place
either on board the vessel or in the tender which conveyed them from the
shore, and that should a case of infectious disease be discovered then, it was
more than probable that many persons on board had been exposed to the
risk of infection.
It was therefore suggested that the medical inspection should take place
on shore and before the emigrants had been aggregated either on the tender
or vessel, and moreover pointed out that this could be done on the pontoon at
Tilbury. The Board of Trade apparently not recognising that the reason for
the medical inspection was to prevent outbreaks of infectious disease on board
after the vessel had sailed, declined to entertain the suggestion.