92 SUMMARY OF THE ANTIMALARIAL CAMPAIGNS 



however, a INIalaria Conference was held at Simla, 

 and it is to be hoped that a more entlnisiastic and 

 enlightened policy will be adopted ; something more 

 on the lines of what has been accomplished in the 

 yellow-fever zone of the globe, where, as we have seen, 

 certain mosquito-carried diseases have been altogether 

 prevented. At the Conference, Sir Herbert Risley 

 suggested the formation of local committees com- 

 posed of the leading men of each place, " to initiate 

 and carry on a systematic campaign against malaria." 

 That, in addition, there should be numerous smaller 

 committees for the villages. These smaller com- 

 mittees would be " in the closest touch with all ranks 

 of the people ; they could teach ; they could persuade ; 

 they could do all things that an official agency would 

 attempt in vain. They would induce men of means 

 to re-excavate the tanks which the piety of a former 

 generation constructed ; they would remind the absentee 

 of his obligations to his ancestral village ; they would 

 initiate minor schemes of drainage ; they would or- 

 ganise private charity for the provision of quinine ; 

 and above all, they would bring home to the people that 

 there are many simple measures which tend to avert 

 malaria, and that their only chance of escaping the 

 disease is to carry out these measures for themselves." 

 " In such propagandism the public spirit of Indian 

 journalists would find unlimited scope." Arguments 

 of this nature constitute a step in the right direction, 

 and have, as 1 have shown in this book, yielded 

 fruitful results wherever they have been adopted. 

 Every civilised country has recognised the importance 



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