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the following Letter to all Shipowners, Agents and Brokers in the Port on
12th December:—
12th December, 1929.
Dear Sirs,
PUBLIC HEALTH (DERATISATION OP SHIPS) REGULATIONS, 1929.
I beg to draw your attention to the above Regulations, which come into operation on 1st January,
1930, and to certain local arrangements designed to enable the Port of London Sanitary Authority
to carry out their responsibilities with the minimum of delay and inconvenience to shipping.
From 1st January, 1930, every vessel arriving in the Port of London from a foreign port will
be required to produce a valid certificate of deratisation or exemption from deratisation granted
in conformity with Article 28 of the International Sanitary Convention, 1926.
A valid certificate means a certificate not more than six months old issued in the approved
international form at a port in the United Kingdom or abroad which has been authorised to issue
such certificates by the Government of the country in which such port is situated.
If no valid certificate is produced, an officer of the Port of London Sanitary Authority will
inspect the vessel. If he finds little or no evidence of rats on board, a Deratisation Exemption
Certificate will be issued by this Authority at a charge of £2 2s., which will include the cost of
inspection.
If the officer is of the opinion that there are more than a very few rats on board, the vessel
must be deratised to the satisfaction of the Port of London Sanitary Authority, who will then issue
a Deratisation Certificate at a charge of £2 2s., which will include the cost of inspection and the
supervision of deratisation, but not of the actual process of deratisation, which may be carried
out by any approved private company under the supervision of the Port Sanitary Authority, but
at the expense of the ship.
The Port of London Sanitary Authority will recognise Certificates of Exemption or Deratisation
issued at approved ports abroad. But in exceptional circumstances, where there is grave and
imminent risk of the importation of rat plague, deratisation of a ship may be required in spite of
the fact that a valid certificate has been produced. When such exceptional circumstances exist,
they will be notified in writing to the Master of the ship concerned.
You will appreciate that the Certificates issued in the Port of London will be liable to be checked
abroad. It is, therefore, of the highest importance that every opportunity should be given to
the officers of the Port Sanitary Authority to form an accurate opinion as to the degree of ratinfestation
of the ships they are called upon to examine, otherwise the Port Sanitary Authority
may unwittingly issue certificates which do not represent the true condition of the ships, and
which may bring the name of this Authority into discredit abroad, with unhappy consequences
to London Shipping interests.
I have, therefore, to request that:—
(1) When a first issue or renewal of a certificate is required, application for inspection
should be made to this office as soon as possible after the ship arrives in the Port of London
and at least 24 hours before the discharge of cargo is completed.
(2) Evidence of rats shall not be deliberately removed within 48 hours prior to the visit
of the inspector. Such action will inevitably cause delay in the issue of the appropriate
certificate, and may result in a certificate of exemption from deratisation being refused on
the grounds that the inspecting officer cannot give an opinion as to the number of rats on board.
(3) Your officers both ashore and afloat shall be instructed that they must not withhold
relevant information from, and must afford every facility to, the inspecting officers of the
Port Sanitary Authority.
(4) Any certificates of Exemption or Deratisation which your vessels may hold shall be
kept on board and be available at any reasonable time for inspection by an officer of the Port
Sanitary Authority.
(5) Attention should be paid to preventing rats gaining access to your ships while they
are lying in any port, to the elimination of rat-harbourage, the closing of rat runs, trapping,
the keeping of cats and every other means of keeping down to a minimum the number of rats
on board, as thus only can your ships be so maintained as to entitle them to Exemption
Certificates. Officers of the Port Sanitary Authority will willingly help with advice on
rat-proofing.
The Port Sanitary Authority desire to discharge their International obligations faithfully
and at the same time to avoid any unnecessary delay and inconvenience to shipping, and they
feel sure they can count upon your close co-operation.
Copies of the Public Health (Deratisation of Ships'* Regulations, 1929, can be obtained (price Id.)
from His Majesty's Stationery Office, Adastral House, Kingsway, W.C. 3, or through any bookseller.
Yours faithfully,
CHAS. F. WHITE,
Medical Officer of Health,
Port of London.