53 anywhere near the rest house. At that time, large numbers of people from other cities used to come to the rest house for vaccination. They came to especially approved and carefully selected areas on the edge of the station. It was determined that if a station was to be used for public vaccination by all, it had to be a long distance from the rest house and that the vaccination was not to be conducted by any Imperial Airways personnel.6 As a result of the measures taken, Smallpox started to disappear from the coastal cities. In the afternoon of 12 March 1936, the HMS Fowey came to Sharjah, and Sheikh Sultan bin Saqr al-Qasimi paid a visit to the military ship’s captain, Neville Harvey, who, in turn, visited the Sheikh in the Sharjah Fort. He also visited Sheikh Saeed binMaktoum in his desert camp, two miles from Dubai. The Captain and his escorts had to cope with two huge Arabian meals only two hours apart that day. It was clear that both cities were smallpox-free. As for visiting Ras al-Khaimah, Harvey had to cancel it owing to a renewed outbreak; 50 new cases and 12 deaths were recorded a week before the HMS Fowey’s visit to the coast. In Early June 1936, the surgeon of the Political Residency in the Gulf region said that the Coast could be declared smallpox free.7 6 Ibid., L.P.&S/12/3835,x.x.118xx1936, No.1.461. 7 Ibid., L.P.&S/12/3x4x, pp.x64−366, 1x63, P.Z.4438/ 1936. SMALLPOX IN SHARJAH
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