View report page

Totals 618 25,716 12
There are several factors which make this work practically possible, though
neither formal nor ideal under present arrangements at Gravesend.
1.—It is desirable that passengers of the transmigrant class should be examined
for infectious disease, especially those from the Eastern Baltic Ports. This implies
a holding at Gravesend of ships carrying the worst class of immigrant and transmigrant
pending such examination; the medical examination under the Aliens
Order is made at the same time and thus the Medical Officer is not carried away from
the boarding station—the "stop" occurring under the 1920 Infectious Diseases
Regulations.
2.—The present state of this class of immigrant and transmigrant is as eminently
louse free as formerly it was lousy, owing to de-lousing and cleansing
which takes place at stations on the Continent set up for the purpose and especially
directed against the transference of typhus fever through its agent of dissemination,
the louse.
3.—Intending immigrants settling in England require a permissive certificate
from the Ministry of Labour. This holds back a large number of immigrants of
that type whose examination was formerly stringent and occupied much time.
4.—The Medical Inspectors engaged in the work at present have acquired a
usefully time-saving discrimination and a rapidity in method, by long connection
with the Port and the work.
It is realised by your Medical Officer that the inspection can only be thoroughly
carried out by the Port Sanitary staff under the conditions of a dispersed and straggling
port area, if powers of "stop" were given under which vessels carrying
immigrants were held at Gravesend pending examination, or alternatively all
immigrants were landed at a specified point.
Whether this would entail a disability on shipping out of proportion with
the object sought, under the circumstances enumerated above, is questionable. However,
the point of these remarks is that the present examination must of necessity
be hurried and informal and its sufficiency therefore in question.