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In Havre the extermination of rats on vessels from plague-infected 

 ports was reported by Consul A. Gaulin as being systematically carried 

 out in accordance with a ministerial decree of May 4, 1906, which 

 is as follows : 



ARTICLE 1. The destruction of rats, or "deratization," effected exclusively by 

 means of apparatus the efficiency of which has been recognized by the Superior Coun- 

 cil of Public Hygiene of France, is obligatory for admission into French ports: 



1. Of every ship coming from or having called at a port considered as being con- 

 taminated with plague. 



2. Of every vessel having taken in transshipment that is to say, from one vessel to 

 the other more than 50 tons of merchandise coming directly from a country considered 

 as being contaminated by the plague. 



The above provisions are applicable to vessels having already discharged a part of 

 their cargo in one or several foreign ports. 

 ART. 2. May be exempt from deratization: 



1. Vessels which only land passengers in French ports without docking and which 

 sojourn only several hours. 



2. Vessels making a call of less than twelve hours and discharging less than 500 tons 

 of merchandise, on condition that the surveillance of discharging be accomplished 

 during the day exclusively, the ship being moored away from the quays, and the 

 hawsers provided with rat guards. 



3. Steamships which shall not have called at any port considered as being con- 

 taminated by the plague for sixty days since their departure from the last contaminated 

 port, and on board of which there shall have been observed nothing of a suspicious 

 sanitary nature. 



4. Vessels which, having called at a port considered as being contaminated by the 

 plague, will prove that they neither berthed alongside the quay or landing stages, nor 

 embarked merchandise. 



5. Vessels which have undergone the process of deratization in a foreign port sub- 

 sequent to their departure from the last port considered as being contaminated. It 

 must be proven, in this case, that nothing of a suspicious sanitary nature has taken 

 place on board during the voyage, and that the deratization has been effected with 

 the same apparatus and the same guarantees as in France. The captain of the vessel 

 shall deliver as proof to the sanitary authorities a certificate mentioning the apparatus 

 employed, the conditions under which the operation was effected, the verifications 

 made, etc., and a certificate viseed by a French consular officer. 



6. Vessels whose status is that indicated in paragraph 2 of article 1, on condition 

 that the merchandise has been transshipped from a vessel which has been deratized 

 under the conditions prescribed in the preceding paragraph, and if such merchandise 

 is accompanied by a certificate of deratization provided for in said paragraph. 



ART. 3. Shall be considered as merchandise, for the application of the present 

 decree, all products embarked, figuring or not figuring on the manifest, the only 

 exception being coal embarked for the needs of the ship without touching the quay. 



ART. 4. Deratization may be effected during the voyage by any French ship 

 having a surgeon, and one of the machines prescribed by article 1. 



The sanitary official at the port of arrival shall determine, upon examining the docu- 

 ments presented and the proofs furnished, the conditions under which the operation 

 has been effected, and he may exact a total or partial renewal of the same. 



The same provisions are applicable to foreign vessels, by virtue of reciprocity, on 

 the twofold condition that the sanitary officials of the one (nation) enjoy the same stand- 

 ing as French sanitary officials, and that the apparatus used are the same as those 

 mentioned in article 1. 



ART. 5. In ports, the deratization is effected before the unloading of the ship. 



