Annual Report for 1930 Minutes of the Sixth Session of the Advisory
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(Distributed to the Council and the Members of the League) C .9 5 .M .35.1931 III. LEAGUE OF NATIONS, HEALTH ORGANISATION EASTERN BUREAU. Annual Report for 1930 -AND Minutes of the Sixth Session of the Advisory Council held in Singapore, December, 27th to 30th 1930. c. A. RIBEIRO & CO., LTD., PRINTERS, SINGAPORE. TABLE OF CONTENTS. PAGE. Director’s Annual Report for 19)0 1 Agenda of the Sixth Session of the Advisory Council 14 Weekly Bulletin despatched by Cable in 1930 14 Infected Ships notified to next port of call in 1930 15 Act to prohibit the importation of yellow fever virus into the Philippine Islands 15 Circular letter regarding measures to prevent the introduction of yellow fever into India 16 Resolution passed by the 8th F.E.A.T.M. Congress in connec tion with yellow fever 16 Estimates for 1931 17 Balance Sheet and Yearly Accounts for 1930 18 List of Visitors 20 Minutes of the Sixth Session of the Advisory Council 21 First Meeting—December 27th 21 Second Meeting „ 29th 25 Third Meeting „ 29th 28 Fourth Meeting „ 30th 33 Resolutions adopted by the Advisory Council 37 Estimates for 1932 as approved by theAdvisory Council 38 DIRECTOR’S REPORT ON THE WORK OF THE EASTERN BUREAU FOR THE YEAR 1930. 1. R e s o l u t io n s o f t h e F i f t h Se s s io n . The Health Committee, at its 16th session, adopted the report of the Medical Director and at the same time approved the resolutions of the last Advisory Council session which were embodied in this report. Acting upon Resolution 2, the thanks of the Advisory Council were conveyed to the heads of the various wireless departments which had co-operated in broadcasting the epidemiological bulletins of the Bureau during 1929. In accordance with Resolution 3, the Secretary-General, on be half of the Advisory Council, tendered to the Governor-General of the Netherlands East Indies his appreciation of the hospitality shown to the members during the last session in Java. At the 11th Assembly, the "Rapporteur” on the work of the Health Organisation, Miss Susan Lawrence (British Empire), when referring to the development of the Eastern Bureau’s intelligence service, stated that the delegates of Australia and Japan had expressed the wish before the 2nd Commission of the Assembly that the activities of the Eastern Bureau should be further extended so that it could act pro gressively as a central agency for the League’s health work in the East. During the first meeting of the recently elected Health Com mittee, it was decided to replace the former Far Eastern Commission by a Sub-commission, to be presided over by Dr. J. Jitta, for the study of the budget and annual report of the Eastern Bureau. 2. E pidemiological I ntelligence . Information received by Cable.—This year, the position regard ing pestilential disease in Eastern ports has decidedly improved when compared with former years, the only unusual outbreak having been the occurrence of cholera during the summer in the main ports of the Philippine Islands. The bulk of information received by the Bureau shows therefore a notable decrease, despite further extensions in its intelligence service. In connection with the plan of reorganisation of port health administration in Chinese ports, Shanghai was taken over on July 1st by the newly created National Quarantine Service which has been placed under the directorship of Dr. Wu Lien Teh. This Service has been for warding to Singapore weekly telegraphic information on the incidence of cholera, smallpox and cerebro-spinal meningitis in Greater Shanghai, which is being supplied by the Public Health Commissioner of the Chinese Municipality, Dr. Houki-Hu. The latter has pointed out that the conditions of reporting in the area under his control were not yet such as to allow of exact figures being supplied ; we nevertheless wel come this first step which proved very valuable during the attenuated outbreak of cholera which occurred in September last in Shanghai. 2 Information from Amoy is now being regularly supplied, both by cable and letter, through the new Port Health Office under Dr. E. J. Strick. As Amoy will be taken over as from January 1st, 1931, by the National Quarantine Service, I wrote to its Director for the con tinuance of information as supplied under the previous regime. Since September, the Chief Quarantine Officer, Bushire, has been instructed by the Director of Public Health, Persia, to despatch to the Bureau a weekly informative cable regarding health conditions in South Persian ports. Referring to a remark appearing on page 39 of the Minutes of the last Advisory Council session on the possibility of my inquiring directly from the medical authorities in Abadan when immediate information was desirable, the Director of Public Health, Persia, drew my attention to the fact that only reports emanating from his Department should be considered as official. Since information is now regularly forthcoming re Persian Gulf ports, there exists no longer any reason for applying direct to Abadan. The Advisory Council having decided "that the speeding up of the receipt of the weekly information by 24 hours should be aimed at during the current year, without however altering the present arrangement until further discussion had taken place,” the time of receipt of this information in Singapore was checked over a period of 6 months and letters were then addressed in September to the Health Administrations of Madagascar, Kenya, India, Netherlands East Indies, Siam, Canton and Shanghai, whose messages had occasionally or regularly reached the Bureau after Wednesday noon during this time. The health authori ties of Kenya, Netherlands East Indies, Siam, Canton and Shanghai have declared that they would accede to this proposed alteration of time in the despatch of their weekly messages; the Director of Medical and Sanitary Services, Ceylon, through the intervention of Dr. A. L. Hoops as,Delegate of British Colonies and Dependencies, also agreed to comply with the new scheme. No intimation has so far been received from Madagascar and India; should their Health Administrations also find it feasible to advance the despatch of their weekly telegrams, steps could then be taken to adapt our wireless service to this new schedule. Information received by Post.—Returns received for the first time this year are the following:— Macao.—Boletim noso-necrologico semanal. Tanga (Tanganyika).—Weekly statistical return. Am oy.—Weekly return. Progress reports on the outbreaks of cholera in Shanghai and of plague in Inner Mongolia were incorporated in the Weekly Fasciculus. Broadcast in code.— As in previous years, the stations of Saigon, Malabar and Tananarive have broadcast our weekly coded bulletin, the average length of which has decreased from 51 words in 1929 to 46 in 1930, whilst the number of infected ports referred to in these messages was 1190 this year against 1448 last year. The number of failures in reception has fallen from 13 in 1929 to 10 in 1930 (India 6 times, Union of South Africa, Tanganyika, Japan, Hongkong, once each). It is no longer necessary for the Bureau to send a special cable to India when there is a failure in the reception of the broadcast in code, as the message in clear now answers the purpose. 3 As the Karachi broadcast was neither picked up by Iraq nor Persia, it was suppressed on August 8th on the suggestion of the Director of Wireless, India. Broadcast in Clear.—As the result of the generous offer of the Netherlands East Indies Wireless Service, Malabar Radio commenced on April 15th to broadcast daily our bulletin in clear on 15,600 metres wave-length. This message comprises the number of cases of pestilential diseases in Eastern ports; for the sake of brevity and economy, the number of deaths is not given, unless this is the only available data. In addition, information relating to important ports situated outside the Bureau’s area as well as quarantine notifications enforced or can celled during the week under review are included. The bulletin is com piled and sent out for broadcast on Friday morning; should any event of importance be reported to the Bureau in the course of the following week, a supplementary cable is despatched to Malabar and the informa tion added to our daily message, which is thus kept strictly up to date. Whilst in Shanghai, the difficulty experienced by Zikawei Radio in picking up Malabar in clear was demonstrated to me; it was owing to strong interference by the Saigon and Haranomachi stations. Although the Director of Saigon Radio kindly suggested that his station could cease emitting whilst our message was being sent out by Malabar, I thought the best solution would be to ask Malabar to broadcast simul taneously on 15,600 and 26.2 metres, as Zikawei was in a position to read easily the short wave message. The Director of Wireless, Bandoeng, having agreed to this, the connection with Shanghai has been regularly established on the short wave since May 22nd. In order to inform ship captains that our radio bulletin in clear was issued daily on two different wave-lengths by Malabar, a new circular letter was drafted in English, French, German and Japanese and despatched to the head offices of the main shipping companies, accompanied by personal letters to their Chief Medical Officers. In addition, I asked Mr. V. O. Bartlett of the League Office in London if he could have a list of the stations broadcasting our messages inserted in shipping publications. Mr. Bartlett consequently sent out a suitable article with the schedule of our radio services, to British shipping papers, chambers of shipping, principal medical papers, Radio Times, World Radio, etc.