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informed 'by the Association of Sea and Air Port Health Authorities that
they concur with this view.
3. I am therefore to request that the Authority may bring this
change of practice into operation as soon as practicable.
4* Authorities will no doubt wish to co-ordinate their action
(including agreement as to the identity of the vessels affected by the
change of practice) with the Naval Medical Officers of Health, who are being
notified by the Medical Director-General of the Navy accordingly and
who will continue to supervise the vessels in question (for rodent
control, etc.,) whilst they remain in H.M. Dockyards.
I am, Sir,
Your obedient servant,
(The Secretary).
Instructions were issued to the Boarding Medical Officers accordingly.
7th February, 1951
Sir,
Port Health Regulations 1933 to 1945.
Declaration of Health.
1. I am directed by the Minister of Health to refer to Article 13 of
the Port Sanitary Regulations, 1933, as amended by the Port Health
Amendment Regulations, 1945, -which requires that the master of a
foreign-going ship arriving from a foreign port shall deliver a
Declaration of Health in the form set out in the Regulations.
2. For the purposes of these Regulations "foreign port*1 means
(in effect) a port or place outside the United Kingdom, the Channel
Islands, the Isle of Man or the Irish Republic, and "foreign-going
ships" mean (in effect) a ship trading or going between this country
and a foreign port excepting one between Brest and the River Elbe.
3. It will thus be seen that a Declaration of Health must be delivered
for any ship arriving in this country from a port on the Mediterranean
or Atlantic coast of France.
4. There have recently been discussions between the Brussels Treaty
Powers (Western Union) with a view to applying a uniform procedure in
all the countries for arriving ships, and it has been agreed that, as
from the 1st March, 1951, a Declaration of Health should not be
required from any ship which trades only between those countries and
does not, during the voyage, call at a port outside them.
5. Except for the ships mentioned in paragraph 3 above, the Port
Health Regulations already give effect to that agreement, and it is
proposed in due course to amend them to exclude also those ships from
the requirement of the Declaration of Health. Since the Regulations
were amended in 1945, however, other amendments have been shown to be
desirable, but formal effect cannot be given to them before the 1st
March, and the Minister wishes to avoid several piecemeal amendments.
Moreover, a review of the Regulations will be necessary after the
International Sanitary Regulations, now under consideration by the
World Health Organisation, have been promulgated.
6. It is, therefore, intended to defer formal amendment of the
Regulations until the general review. But, pending their formal
amendment, the Minister considers that Port Health Authorities need not,
after the 1st March next, continue to require a Declaration of Health
for a ship arriving in this country from a port on the Mediterranean or
Atlantic coast of France, which has not, on its voyage, called at a
port outside France, Belgium or Holland.
7. A copy of this letter is being sent separately to the Port
Medical Officer.
I am, Sir,
Your obedient servant,
(The Secretary)
Instructions were issued to the Boarding Medical Officers accordingly*
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