512.4B3/26
The Chargé in France (Wilson) to the Secretary of State
[Received November 17.]
Sir: In accordance with the Department’s instruction No. 1122, of October 14, 1938, File No. 512.4B3/4,7 I have the honor to report that Surgeon General Hugh S. Cumming, Retired, United States Public Health Service, participated in behalf of the United States Government in the Sanitary Conference which convened at Paris, on October 28, 1938, for the purpose of considering the transference to the Egyptian Government of the duties assumed by the Sanitary Maritime and Quarantine Board of Egypt, as well as the consequent revision of titles II, III and IV of the International Sanitary Convention of June 21, 1926. Second Secretary Edwin A. Plitt was assigned, in accordance with the instruction under reference, to assist Dr. Cumming.
The delegates and their assistants, to the number of 57 of which 24 were plenipotentiaries, took part in the deliberations which began at four o’clock on October 28, and at the opening meeting of which Mr. Anatole de Monzie, the French Minister of Public Works, presided in place of the Minister of Foreign Affairs. This first meeting was confined to the reading of introductory addresses by Mr. de Monzie and the Egyptian Minister of Foreign Affairs, the latter outlining the reasons for requesting the revision of certain sections of the existing Convention, and taking the opportunity to draw a parallel in his exposition to the abolition of the International Sanitary Control formerly functioning in Turkey under the capitulatory regime.
Following motions made by Mr. de Monzie, the Egyptian Minister of Foreign Affairs, Abdul Fattah Yehia Pasha, was appointed a Vice President of the Conference, as well as Dr. M. T. Morgan, Medical Officer of Health of the Port of London and President of the Permanent [Page 963] Committee of the International Office of Public Health, and Senator Professor Count Aldo Castellani (Italy).
Three commissions were constituted, viz.:
- 1.
- To deal with coordination under the Chairmanship of the Egyptian Minister of Foreign Affairs;
- 2.
- To handle technical questions under the Chairmanship of Dr. M. T. Morgan;
- 3.
- To verify the powers of the plenipotentiaries under the Chairmanship of Senator Professor Count Aldo Castellani.
Dr. Cumming was made a member of the first and second commissions. The secretaryship of the Conference was entrusted to the International Office of Public Health.
These commissions met at the French Ministry of Foreign Affairs, and at the International Office of Public Health twice, daily, on October 29, 30 and 31st. They developed a text for the approval and signature of the plenipotentiaries, in which were abrogated certain articles of the International Sanitary Convention of June 21, 1926. They modified some of them, and added an article relating to the role devolving upon the International Office of Public Health in its capacity of consulting council for the interpretation and the application of the International Sanitary Convention.
The conference also noted a declaration made by the Egyptian Government, which was added to the final record of the proceedings (“Acte final”).
Of the Governments having ratified the 1926 Convention, the delegates of Belgium, Spain, France, Great Britain, Greece, Italy, the Netherlands and Portugal declared that they were authorized to accept the suppression of the Maritime and Quarantine Sanitary Control of Egypt. The Danish delegate was absent, but had expressed his consent before leaving. The Norwegian delegate explained that his country had not yet ratified the 1926 Convention and that he, therefore, had to abstain. The Swedish delegate made the same observation and explained that he could, therefore, participate in the conference merely as an expert.
In the course of the meetings, the discussion of the suppression of the Maritime and Quarantine Sanitary Board of Egypt led to the raising of the question of the fate of the Regional Bureau of the Near East, the functioning of which this Board had assured. The International Office of Public Health representative proposed that the Egyptian Government assume the functions of this organization, name its Director, and that it arrange for the constitution of a commission to comprise the technical representatives of the countries previously having jurisdiction thereover. Also, that the President of the Permanent Committee and the Director General of the International [Page 964] Office of Public Health, be invited by the Egyptian Government to participate in its reunions, which are to begin in 1939. It was further recommended that this organization, once established, should function for a period of five years and continue thereafter by tacit renewal. The Egyptian delegates agreed to this in principle.
At the closing session, on October 31, 1938, a convention modifying the Sanitary Convention of June 21, 1926, and embodying the agreement arrived at, was signed by the plenipotentiaries,8 and a record of the proceedings of the conference was subscribed by the delegates and their assistants.
Nothing of any particular significance transpired during the meeting. The proposing, by the French Government representative, of the leading Italian delegate as Vice President of the Conference and to head one of the three committees, was commented on as an astute move, not only from the point of view of Count Castellani’s outstanding professional position, but also as a political expedient, in view of Dr. Petragnani, the other Italian delegate, having manifested his intention of obstructing the Egyptian proposal in detail.
A complete report of the conference is under preparation by Dr. Cumming.9 For the Department’s information, there are enclosed two copies each of the text of the modifications of the Convention and of the final record of the proceedings.10
Respectfully yours,