[Extract]
Mr. Morris to Mr. Seward.
Sir: * * * * * * *
The Cholera International Conference held its seventh meeting on Thursday of last week. A committee was appointed to consider and report on the four following questions: First The nature and origin of cholera. Second. Its transmissibility. Third. The measures of prevention against it. Fourth. The form to be given to the resolutions of the conference. Another meeting will not be held until the committee is ready to report. The only decision as yet arrived at by the conference is that of the suspension of all intercourse by sea with the Arabian coast between Djeddah and Egypt in the event of another outbreak of the epidemic during next summer. Such a measure of sanitary police, which it is proposed to enforce by Ottoman or “allied” men of war, would force all the pilgrims to return by land, and the risk of the propogation of the disease it is supposed would be greatly diminished. This measure was denounced by the Ottoman and Persian delegates as impracticable, and there is no probability of its adoption by the Porte. The cholera for the most part has been propagated in the east by land, and the returning pilgrim caravan of last year scattered the epidemic all along its route from Mecca to Aleppo and Damascus The cholera is now raging violently in Kurdistan, and is evidently making its way with steady progress to Mesopotamia and the heart of Persia. Quarantine measures by land and sea are indispensably necessary, but entire cessation of communication cannot be effected.
The conference, with the exception of the Russian delegation, is composed of two delegates from each power represented, one diplomatic and the other medical. Both of the Russian delegates are medical men, and it is to be regretted that all the delegates are not such. The result of the deliberations of the conference can only be submitted in a recommendatory form to the Porte, and it is doubtful if it will be able to suggest any measures which the Porte will be willing to adopt. The sessions may last a few weeks longer. The general impression here is unfavorable to the conference. It is not considered as a practical body, and there is a strong suspicion that it is in some degree the creature of political intrigue.
I am, with great respect, your obedient servant,
Hon. William H. Seward, Secretary of State, Washington, D. C.