?430 The pilgrimage to Mecca. [CHAP. XV.
Removal from
camp to place of
embarkation.
sent that a vessel was ready to receive them. Before leaving
the camps the pilgrims, their clothes and effects, were to be disinfected.
The pilgrims were to be taken from the camp by special train, railed
to the place of departure of the steamer, and there embarked. No
tickets were to be sold at Calcutta and Madras, and they were to be
purchaseable only at the camps of observation.
Complete suspen-
sion of the
pilgrimage.
Before effect could be given to these orders, a communication was
received from Her Majesty's Secretary of State, in consequence of which
the Government of India issued the following- notification, on the 20th
February, altogether suspending the pilgrimage from India for the
current season:-
The prohibitory
notification.
"The question of the suspension of the pilgrimage to the Hedjaz
having been under the consideration of the Government of India and
Her Majesty's Government, Her Majesty's Government have now
come to the conclusion that, in consequence of the strong opinion of
all European Governments, including Turkey, regarding the danger of
plague being communicated to Europe, it is impossible to meet their
demands by any measure short of the suspension of the pilgrimage for
the time being.
"The Governor General in Council is therefore pleased, under sec-
tion 2, sub-section 1 of the Epidemic Diseases Act, 1897, to order that
the pilgrimage to the Hedjaz shall be altogether suspended for the
current season."
Making public
the causes
which led to the
suspension.
Local Governments and Administrations were informed that it was
essential that the reason for the decision of Her Majesty's Govern-
ment, indicated in the notification quoted above, should be made widely
known by the officers of the Government, and that every endeavour
should be made by the agency of Muhammadans of position and trust
to explain the circumstances to those who had intended to proceed on
pilgrimage and to Muhammadans generally. It was further explained
that it was necessary to stop all intending pilgrims near their homes
and on the frontiers of British India and to induce them to return
to their homes, so that they might not gather in large bodies.
Return of intending Pilgrims to their Homes.
The pilgrimage having thus been suspended, the next point to notice
is the arrangement made for the return of the intending pilgrims to
their homes.
Detention in an
observation
camp of intend-
ing pilgrims who
had come to
Bombay.
With a view to prevent the dissemination of plague by intend-
ing pilgrims who had been in infected localities, the notification of the
16th February forbidding the pilgrimage from the Bombay Pre-
sidency and Sind provided that all persons who had entered those