Convention amending the International Sanitary Convention
Source: Unofficial Text
The Chancellor of the German Reich, the President of the Dominican Republic, His Majesty the King of Egypt, the President of the United States of America, the President of the French Republic, His Majesty the King of Great Britain, Ireland and the British Dominions beyond the Seas, Emperor of India, His Majesty the King of the Hellenes, His Majesty the King of Italy, Emperor of Ethiopia, His Majesty the Emperor of Japan, Her Majesty the Queen of the Netherlands, His Majesty the King of Roumania, and the Swiss Federal Council;
BEING OF OPINION that the functioning of the Sanitary, Maritime and Quarantine Board of Egypt is inappropriate to the present state of health institutions in Egypt, that the Board should in consequence be abolished, and that certain provisions of the International Sanitary Convention signed at Paris on 21 June 1926, should be amended in the light of such abolition;
BEING FURTHER OF OPINION that the functions of the Office international d'Hygiène publique as a technical advisory board for the interpretation and application of the International Sanitary Conventions should be defined in the Convention;
HAVE DECIDED to conclude a Convention for the purpose and have appointed as their Plenipotentiaries:[1]
Who, having deposited their full powers, found in good and due form, have agreed on the following provisions:
Article 1
The Sanitary, Maritime and Quarantine Board of Egypt shall be abolished and its functions shall be performed by the Egyptian sanitary authorities in pursuance of the provisions of the International Sanitary Convention of 1926, as amended under the terms of Article 2 below. The transfer of services shall take place three months after the entry into force of the present Convention.
Article 2
Articles 68 and 70 and Part IV of the International Sanitary Convention, 1926, are hereby repealed.
Articles 44, 69, 72, 73, 75, 77, 86, 88, 89, 95, 138, 139, 142, 144 and 151 and the headings of Part II, and of Section I thereof of the said Convention, are hereby amended to read as follows:
Article 44
The High Contracting Parties undertake to instruct their health administrations to draw up directions enabling ship's captains, especially when there is no ship's doctor aboard, to apply the provisions of the present Convention.
The captain and the ship's doctor shall answer all questions that are put to them by the sanitary authority with regard to the health of the ship during the voyage.
When the captain and the doctor declare that there has not been any case of plague, cholera, yellow fever, typhus or smallpox, or an unusual mortality among rats on the ship since the time of its departure, the sanitary authority may require them to make a formal declaration or a declaration under oath.
PART II
SPECIAL PROVISIONS FOR THE SUEZ CANAL
SECTION I
MEASURES REGARDING ORDINARY SHIPS FROM INFECTED NORTHERN PORTS ON THEIR ARRIVAL AT THE ENTRANCE TO THE SUEZ CANAL
Article 69
The measures to be taken as regards infected or suspected ships from a European, Mediterranean or Black Sea port infected with plague or with cholera, wishing to pass through the Suez Canal, shall be determined by the Egyptian sanitary authority in accordance with the provisions of this Convention.
Article 72
Healthy ships
Healthy ships may pass through the Suez Canal in quarantine.
Article 73
Suspected ships
Suspected ships having a doctor on board and in the opinion of the sanitary authority presenting sufficient (sanitary) guarantees, may be allowed to pass through the Suez Canal in quarantine, subject to the conditions laid down in the regulations to be adopted by the Egyptian sanitary authority for the enforcement of the present Convention.
Article 75
If, during the Mecca pilgrimage, plague or cholera is prevalent in the Hedjaz, ships from the Hedjaz, or from any other part of the Arabian coast of the Red Sea, that have not there taken on board any pilgrims or like collections of persons, and on which there has been no suspicious incident during the voyage, shall be classed as ordinary suspected ships, and shall be subjected to the preventive measures and the treatment prescribed for such ships.
If they are bound for Egypt, they may be required to undergo, at a sanitary station fixed by the Egyptian sanitary authority, observation for a period of five days in the case of cholera, and six days in the case of plague, reckoned from the day of embarkation. They shall, moreover, be subjected to all the measures prescribed for suspected ships (disinfection, etc.) and shall not be granted free pratique until after a favourable medical inspection.
It is to be understood that, if there have been suspicions incidents on board during the voyage, observation may be imposed at Moses' Wells, the period being five days in the case of cholera and six days in the case of plague.
Article 77
Permission to pass through the Suez Canal in quarantine shall be granted by the port sanitary authority at Suez.
Article 86
When it is absolutely necessary for ships passing in quarantine to coal or take oil at Suez or at Port Said, they shall do so subject to the measures of isolation and supervision required by the Egyptian sanitary authority. Coaling may be done by the labourers of the port in cases where effective supervision of this operation is possible on board, and when all contact with the crew can be avoided. At night the coaling place shall be efficiently lighted by electricity.
Article 88
As regards the passage of the Suez Canal, the following advantages shall be accorded to ships of war as hereinafter specified:
The quarantine authority shall accept them as healthy on production of a certificate signed by the ship's surgeons and countersigned by the captain, stating on oath or by a formal declaration:
(a) That there has not been, either at the time of departure or during the voyage, a case of plague or of cholera on board;
(b) That a careful examination of every person on board, without exception, has been made within twelve hours of arrival at the Egyptian port and that no case of either of these diseases has been detected.
Such ships shall be exempt from medical inspection and shall be given free pratique at once.
Suspected or infected ships of war shall be subjected to the regulations in force.
Only fighting units shall be regarded as ships of war. Transports and hospital ships shall be classed as ordinary ships.
Article 89
In the case of stoppage of ships in quarantine, the Egyptian Government shall provide facilities for the conveyance through Egyptian territory, in quarantine railway trains of mails and ordinary passengers from infected countries.
Article 95
Pilgrim ships that are coasters intended for short passages known as "coasting voyages" in the Red Sea shall be subject to the provisions of special regulations promulgated by the countries of origin or of destination. These regulations shall be communicated to the States concerned and to the Office international d'Hygiène publique.
Article 138
Agents of shipping lines and captains of ships shall be warned that, on completion of the period of observation at Tor Sanitary Station, only Egyptian pilgrims shall be permitted to leave the ships definitely in order to return to their homes.
Only pilgrims with certificates of residence, issued by an Egyptian authority and made out in the form prescribed, shall be recognised as Egyptians or inhabitants of Egypt.
Non-Egyptian pilgrims may not, after leaving Tor, be disembarked at an Egyptian port except by special permission given under specified conditions by the Egyptian sanitary authority. Agents of shipping lines and ship captains shall therefore be warned that the transhipment of non-Egyptian pilgrims at Tor, Suez, Port Said or Alexandria is prohibited in the absence of special authorisation in each case.
Ships carrying pilgrims of non-Egyptian nationality shall be treated according to the rules for such pilgrims and shall not be permitted to enter any Egyptian port in the Mediterranean.
Article 139
Egyptian pilgrims shall undergo at Tor, or any other station fixed by the Egyptian sanitary authority, observation for a period of three days at most, medical inspection and, if necessary, disinfection and disinsectisation.
Article 142
If it be not established that there is plague or cholera in the Hedjaz or at the port whence the ship has come, or that either of these diseases has occurred in the Hedjaz during the pilgrimage, the ship shall be subjected at Tor to the procedure prescribed for healthy ships at Kamaran.
The pilgrims shall be landed; they shall take a shower-bath or bathe in the sea; their soiled linen and any portion of their personal effects or their baggage open, in the opinion of the sanitary authority, to suspicion shall be disinfected. The duration of these operations shall not exceed seventy-two hours.
Provided always that a pilgrim ship, if it has had no case of plague or cholera during the voyage from Jeddah to Yambo and Tor, and if it be established by medical examination, conducted at Tor after disembarkation, that there is no such case, may be permitted by the Egyptian sanitary authority to pass through the Suez Canal in quarantine, even by night, subject to the fulfilment of the four following conditions:
(1) That, in order to secure medical attendance of persons on board, the ship carries one or more medical officers duly qualified or recognised;
(2) That the ship is provided with satisfactory disinfecting chambers in good working order;
(3) That it is proved that the number of pilgrims is not in excess of that permitted by the pilgrimage regulations;
(4) That the captain undertakes to sail direct to the port which he indicates as his next port of call.
The sanitary tax shall be the same as the pilgrims would have to pay if they remained in quarantine for three days.
Article 144
Transhipment of pilgrims at Egyptian ports is strictly prohibited, except by special permission of, and under conditions imposed by, the Egyptian sanitary authority.
Article 151
The Governments of Egypt and Saudi Arabia, and the Governments of any other country concerned in the pilgrim traffic, shall transmit periodically and, if necessary, by the most rapid means, to the Office international d'Hygiène publique, in the manner laid down in this Convention, all sanitary information and particulars collected by them during the pilgrimage season concerning sanitary conditions in the countries through which the pilgrims pass. They shall also communicate an annual pilgrimage report to the Office international d'Hygiène publique.
The Office international d'Hygiène publique shall, as soon as possible, forward to the countries concerned the information and particulars and the annual reports mentioned in the preceding paragraph.
Article 3
The following Additional Article shall be inserted at the beginning of Part V of the International Sanitary Convention of 1926:
Additional Article
The High Contracting Parties agree to recognise the Permanent Committee of the Office international d'Hygiène publique as the technical advisory Board for the interpretation and application of the International Sanitary Conventions and to consult this Committee, before taking any other step, should difficulties arise between them in connection with the interpretation and application of the present Convention.
Article 4
The present Convention shall bear this day's date and shall remain open for a period of three months for the signature of all countries bound by the International Sanitary Conventions of 1926, 1912 or 1903.
On the expiry of that period, certified true copies of the present Convention, bearing all the signatures affixed thereon, shall be forwarded by the Government of the French Republic, as soon as possible, to the Governments of all the countries bound by the above-mentioned Conventions.
Further, on the expiry of the same period, any country bound by one of the International Sanitary Conventions of 1926, 1912 or 1903 shall be free to accede to the present Convention upon notifying its intention to the Government of the French Republic. The latter Government shall notify the Governments of all the countries bound by the aforesaid Conventions and the Office international d'Hygiène publique regarding each accession
Article 5
The present Convention shall be ratified and the instruments of ratification shall be deposited at Paris as soon as possible. The Government of the French Republic shall inform the Governments of all the countries bound by the International Sanitary Conventions of 1926, 1912 or 1903, and the Office international d'Hygiène publique, of the deposit of all instruments of ratification.
Article 6
As soon as four of the countries at present represented on the Sanitary, Maritime and Quarantine Board of Egypt shall have deposited their ratifications or signified their accession, the Government of the French Republic shall draw up a record of the fact, of which copies shall be forwarded to the Governments of all the countries bound by the International Sanitary Conventions of 1926, 1912 or 1903 and to the Office international d'Hygiène publique. The present Convention shall come into force on the date on which that record is compiled.
IN FAITH WHEREOF the respective Plenipotentiaries have signed the present Convention.
DONE at Paris, the thirty-first day of October, nineteen hundred and thirty-eight, in a single copy, which shall remain deposited in the archives of the Government of the French Republic.[2]
DECLARATION BY THE DELEGATION OF THE ROYAL EGYPTIAN GOVERNMENT
At the moment of signing the Convention, the undersigned, acting in virtue of their full powers, make the following declaration:
I. The Royal Egyptian Government does not intend to modify, without previously notifying the Office International d'Hygiène publique, either the provisions of the Regulations for the Execution of the International Sanitary Convention of 1926 as altered by the Convention of today's date, as regards transit through the Suez Canal or the pilgrim traffic, or the quarantine taxes relating to these two services.
II. The Royal Egyptian Government intends to retain in its service for a period of five years, in the capacity of Egyptian officials, foreign experts, to deal with transit through the Suez Canal and with the pilgrim traffic.
III. As regards foreign permanent officials who are at present serving under the Sanitary Board, it is the intention of the Royal Egyptian Government to admit such of those officials with whom it might wish to part, to the benefit of a regime based on that provided for in Law No. 28 of 1923, relating to conditions of service and retirement or dismissal of officials, employees and agents of foreign nationality.
As regards such of those officials as might voluntarily leave the service within a period of six months from the date of the transfer of the powers of the Board to the Egyptian authorities, the Government is prepared, in view of their past services, to grant them, in addition to their right to a pension, certain advantages in a form to be determined.[3]
[1]List of plenipotentiaries not reproduced here.
[2]Signatures not reproduced here.
[3]Signatures not reproduced here.
