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Globalizing the 1926 International Sanitary Convention*

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  17 October 2011

Anne Sealey
Anne Sealey
Affiliation:
99 Coe Hill Drive, Apt 317, Toronto, ON M6S 3E4, Canada E-mail: anne.sealey@gmail.com
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Abstract

The 1926 International Sanitary Convention, which laid out requirements for port sanitation and quarantine in order to limit the spread of diseases internationally, changed the way that the world approached international epidemic control. The 1926 convention is notable for two reasons: the increased reliance on epidemic intelligence rather than quarantine, and the splitting of the world into a series of formalized regional networks under the auspices of a global agreement. This article explores the creation and the limits of this system as a window into shifting understandings of disease and international relations in the interwar era, arguing that sanitary spheres of influences were shaped by, but not entirely dependent on, political spheres of influence.

Keywords

epidemic controlInternational Sanitary ConventionLeague of Nations Health OrganisationOffice International d’Hygiène PubliquePan American Sanitary Bureau
Type
Articles
Information
Journal of Global History , Volume 6 , Issue 3 , November 2011 , pp. 431 - 455
Copyright
Copyright © London School of Economics and Political Science 2011

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References

1 Conférence sanitaire internationale de Paris. 10 mai–21 juin 1926. Procès verbaux. Paris: Imprimerie Nationale, 1927, p. 42. I thank Carole Fink for this elegant translation of Barrère’s phrase. Unless noted, all other translations are my own.

2 League of Nations Health Committee, ‘League of Nations Health Committee. Minutes of the first session, Geneva, February 11–21, 1924’, in League of Nations Publications, Category III Health (henceforth LONP), Geneva: League of Nations, 1924, p. 34.

3 I am grateful to the anonymous reviewer who suggested this phrasing.

4 See Mark Harrison, ‘Disease, diplomacy and international commerce: the origins of international sanitary regulation in the nineteenth century’, Journal of Global History, 1, 2, 2006, p. 198, for more on the primacy of quarantine in nineteenth-century sanitary diplomacy. I borrow the expression ‘international sanitary system’ from Harrison.

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48 Ibid., pp. 11–12.

49 Ibid., p. 28.

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51 Ibid., p. 31.

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56 LON, 12B/38280/30818, T. F. Tang, ‘Reply from Chinese Government. Translation’, 1924.

57 LON, 12B/35029/30818, L. Atkinson, ‘Far Eastern Sanitary Convention. Reply of the Commonwealth Government of Australia. C. H. 219’, 28 August 1924.

58 LON, 12B/35019/30818, G. H. Villiers to Eric Drummond, 5 October 1924.

59 White, Port health organisation, p. 35.

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62 Ibid., p. 39.

63 Ibid., p. 48.

64 Ibid., p. 63.

65 Ibid., p. 14.

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74 LON, 12B/21836/26117x, Kikujiro Ishii, ‘The work of the second session of the Health Committee. Report by Viscount Ishii and the resolutions approved by the council on June 17th, 1924. C.308 (1) 1924. III’, 1924, p. 1; LON, 12B/26535x/22235, Rajchman to Herbert B. Ames, 1 December 1924, pp. 1–2.

75 Conférence sanitaire internationale de Paris 1926, p. 53.

76 Howard-Jones, Scientific background, pp. 12, 20.

77 Ibid., 93. Conférence sanitaire internationale de Paris 1926, p. 95.

78 Ibid., pp. 44–5.

79 Ibid., p. 47.

80 Ibid., pp. 47–8.

81 Ibid., pp. 80–1.

82 Ibid., p. 81.

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84 Conférence sanitaire internationale de Paris 1926, p. 566.

85 Ibid., p. 423.

86 Ibid., p. 183.

87 Ibid., p. 169.

88 Ibid., p. 179.

89 Ibid., p. 173.

90 Ibid., p. 163.

91 Ibid., p. 165.

92 Ibid., pp. 166–7, 179.

93 Ibid., p. 169.

94 Ibid., p. 170.

95 Ibid., p. 163.

96 LON, 12B/41753x/41647, Norman F. White, ‘Memorandum: international maritime sanitary convention’, January 1925, p. 5.

97 Ibid., p. 8.

98 Ibid., p. 10.

99 Session extraordinaire de mai–juin 1926 du Comite Permanent de L’Office International D’Hygiène Publique: procès-verbaux des séances, Paris: Imprimerie Nationale, 1926, p. 15.

100 Conférence sanitaire internationale de Paris 1926, p. 167.

101 Ibid., p. 166.

102 Ibid., p. 167.

103 Ibid., pp. 105, 130–1.

104 Howard-Jones, Scientific background, p. 98.

105 White, Port health organisation, p. 39.

106 The National Archives, Kew (henceforth TNA), T 161/484/S34444/1, W. A. Leeper to the Secretary to the Treasury, 3 May 1929.

107 LON, 12B/37304/27633, ‘H. M. Cleminson, International Shipping Conference General Manager, to S. G., London 22 May, 1924, published 2 July 1924, C.H. 211’, 1924, p. 2.

108 TNA, MH 113/50, George Buchanan, ‘Report by the delegate of Great Britain (1) on the session of the Committee of the Office International d’Hygiène Publique, Paris, May, 1923; (2) on the Health Committee of the League of Nations, June 1923; and (3) on the Mixed Commission of the Office International d’Hygiène Publique and of the Health Committee of the League of Nations appointed to consider the permanent health organisation of the League (being the eighth report of this series)’, 1923, p. 8.

109 Ibid.

110 LON, 12B/48742/22235, A. Granville to Madsen, 29 January 1926.

111 TNA, MH 113/50, George Buchanan, ‘Report by the delegate of Great Britain on the discussions at the October session of the Committee of the Office International d’Hygiène Publique, Paris, 1925, in relation to the revision of the International Sanitary Convention (being the thirteenth report of this series)’, 1925, p. 5.

112 RAC, RF, RG 1.1, series 100, box 22, folder 184, ‘The Paris international sanitary conference of May and June 1926’, 1926, pp. 6, 8.

113 Ibid., pp. 7–9.

114 LON, 12B/57499/26535, ‘Report on the work of the tenth extraordinary session of the Health Committee, held at Paris on Tuesday and Wednesday April 26 and 27, 1927’, 1927, p. 2.

115 LON, 12B/47593/22235, Thorvald Madsen to Eric Drummond, 29 May 1926, pp. 1–2.

116 Conférence sanitaire internationale de Paris 1926, pp. 139–41.

117 Ibid., p. 252.

118 White, ‘Memorandum’, p. 3.

119 LON, 12B/48822/17928, E. Roesle, ‘The epidemiological reports of the League of Nations’, January 1926, pp. 3–4; ‘League of Nations Health Committee. Minutes of the thirteenth session, held in Geneva from October 25 to 31’, 1928. C.3 M.3 1929’, in LONP, Geneva: League of Nations, 1929, p. 59.

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121 LON, 12B/43209x/34275, Rajchman to Brooke, 1 April 1925, p. 1.

122 LON, 12B/34665/34275, ‘Eastern Bureau annual report for 1925 and minutes of the council meeting held in Singapore, January 4 to 6, 1926’, 1926, p. 10.

123 Ibid., p. 30.

124 LON, 12B/56751x/34275/, Gilbert Brooke, ‘Report on the working of the Singapore Bureau for the first ten months of 1926’, 1926, p. 4. Officer, ‘Exchange rates’.

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126 LON, 12B/34665/34275, White to Brooke, 26 November 1925, pp. 1–2.

127 TNA, CO 273/555/10, A. L. Hoops to Colonial Secretary, Singapore, 17 April 1929.

128 LON, 8D/33827/31138, Joseph Avenol to Under-Secretary of State, Foreign Office, March 1932, p. 4.

129 ‘Minutes of a conference held in Singapore’, p. 3.

130 LON, 12B/45195x/34275, Brooke to White, 15 June 1925.

131 LON, 12B/45195x/34275, Brooke to Rajchman, 18 June 1926.

132 League of Nations Health Committee, ‘Minutes of the seventh session: held at Paris on Saturday, June 19 and Sunday, June 20, 1926. C.440 M.170 1926 III’, in LONP, Geneva: League of Nations, 1926, pp. 10–11.

133 LON, 8D/6481/430, J. J. Heagerty to League of Nations Health Organisation, 29 January 1931, pp. 1–2.

134 LON, 12B/45195x/34275, Extraction from White to Brooke, 16 October 1925, p. 1.

135 LON, 8D/6481/430, Cumming to White, October 1928, p. 1.

136 LON, 8D/41370/341, Yves M. Biraud, ‘Note on the British position regarding the reopening of the Singapore Bureau’, 30 April 1946, p. 1.

137 League of Nations Health Committee, ‘Minutes of the fifth session held at Geneva’, p. 40.

138 Conférence sanitaire internationale de Paris 1926, p. 75.

139 Ibid., pp. 241, 260, 411.

140 Ibid., 450.

141 For more on League of Nations and other international health activities in Africa in this period, see Borowy, World health, p. 274.

142 League of Nations Health Committee, ‘Minutes of the eighth session held at Geneva from Wednesday, October 13th, to Tuesday, October 19th, 1926’, Geneva: League of Nations, 1926, p. 74.

143 Ibid., p. 75.

144 Ibid., pp. 79, 82.

145 Officer, ‘Exchange rates’.

146 League of Nations Health Committee, ‘Minutes of the eighth session’, p. 84.

147 LON, 12B/52848/45465, G. A. Mitchell to Rajchman, 1926.

148 LON, 12B/52846/45465, Perrier to Rajchman, 4 October 1926, p. 1.

149 League of Nations Health Committee, ‘Minutes of the eighth session’, pp. 22–3.

150 Borowy, World health, p. 198.