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52
Forty-eight countries signatory to the Convention were represented at the Conference and after much
discussion and negotiation it was unanimously decided to grant Egypt her desire that she herself, under
certain safeguards, should take over the work of the Egyptian Quarantine Board.
To that end a Convention was drawn up abolishing a certain number of Articles in Parts II, III and IV
of the 1926 Convention and modifying others.
This modifying Convention was signed in Paris on October 31st last and will come into force after
four Governments with members on the Quarantine Board have appended their ratifications.
I have referred to this Conference first, for the reason that the Paris Office took a prominent part in
the preliminary discussions leading up to the Conference and was largely responsible for preparing the draft
modifications of the 1926 Convention necessary to give effect to the abolition of the Quarantine Board
and the eventual transfer of its quarantine service to the Egyptian Health Authority; secondly, because
by unanimous resolution of the Conference a highly important duty was imposed upon the Paris Office.
The Conference requested the Paris Office to undertake a preliminary study of the International
Sanitary Convention as a whole, and to make recommendations with a view to bringing its terms and code
of procedure into line with modern quarantine practice and with the new conditions which have developed
since 1926, the date when the present International Sanitary Convention was brought into force.
Their recommendations would form a basis for discussion at an International Sanitary Conference
to be convened in due course for the purpose of drawing up a new International Sanitary Convention.
This, of course, is a big undertaking, not to be embarked upon lightheartedly, but with a due sense of
responsibility in the knowledge that whatever recommendations may be adopted may profoundly modify
quarantine procedure in every country in the world, to say nothing of national quarantine regulations.
I believe there will be few here who will disagree with my view that great progress has been made
during the past decade in the prevention of epidemic disease and the control of its spread from country to
country. The time has therefore come, or will come very shortly, when Port Health Authorities may
afford to be much more lenient as regards some of the measures they now impose on international traffic
though they must, no doubt, continue to maintain their watchfulness, and to adopt strict precautions in
other directions.
What, for example, are the risks to which this country is still exposed from the introduction of serious
epidemic diseases ?
By reason of biological conditions or of geographical situation or thanks to our highly developed health
organisation, or to a combination of these circumstances, this country has, I believe, no longer anything
to fear from the introduction of human plague, cholera, typhus or yellow fever.
In fact, there are only two diseases which continue to give us serious cause for preoccupation, first
the introduction of rat plague and secondly smallpox.
Even rat plague is nothing like the menace it used to be for these shores. As you know, the principle
of periodic inspection of ships and their deratisation if found infested has, thanks to its strict application in
practically every country with a sense of responsibility and to the spirit of co-operation which has everywhere
been displayed, reduced the rat population on ships to a most remarkable extent.
Recent investigations in ports of the United States of America have shown that 90 percent. of the
foreign shipping entering these ports are free, or practically free, from rats, and that of the 10 percent.
which are "ratty" only 2 percent. are seriously infested; furthermore those found heavily infested are
almost invariably the same ships.
You will remember that a similar investigation of the shipping in a number of ports in the British Isles
revealed precisely parallel conditions.
The time is coming, therefore, when Port Health Authorities will be able to draw up a "black list" of
ships in the hope, perhaps, of eventually and progressively reducing this list by imposing on the ships
figuring therein measures which will render their lives intolerable unless they mend their ways.
Unfortunately the rat population of certain ports has not fallen concurrently with that of ships, and
vigilance against the carriage of rat plague must therefore continue to be exercised.
One of the primary duties of the Paris Office is by repeated persuasion to try to prevail upon such
Port Health Authorities to take still more active measures to rid their ports of plague.
Smallpox to my mind remains the really serious menace, and in some ways an increasing menace.
The development of sea transport and particularly of the speed, even of "trampers," has brought
about this change that, whereas only a few years ago the Port of Marseilles, for instance, had the doubtful
privilege of being the first port on the route from the East to receive cases of smallpox, ports in this
country nowadays often enjoy that privilege.
Should we, therefore, advocate more stringent measures for the detection of this, to us, most dangerous
disease and, if so, what should these measures be ? And in this connection let is not forget the super-added
risk of the introduction of smallpox by aircraft.
In this connection I venture, Mr. President, to suggest that no body in this country is more appropriate
nor more fitted than this Association to carry out a study of these problems with a view eventually to
tendering advice and counsel to the Ministry of Health, and through the Ministry of Health to the International
Health Office, Paris, now charged with the revision of the International Sanitary Convention.