Report by H.G. MacDonnell

Public Record Office FO6/302, ff. 401-10
H.B.M.`s Chargé d`Affaires in Buenos Aires, H. G. MacDonnell, to the Earl Granville, K.G., at the Foreign Office, London.

Buenos Ayres June 19th 1871 My Lord, I avail myself of the approval conveyed to me in Your Lordship`s No. 11 Commercial of April 28th, in regard to the relief which I have ventured to extend to those of Her Majesty`s subjects plunged into circumstances of distress by the visitation of Yellow Fever in Buenos Aires during the last few months, to submit to Your Lordship the full and detailed account of the sum I have disbursed for that object. Before explaining the different amounts therein specified, I trust Your Lordship will permit me briefly to narrate the circumstances which prompted me to assume the responsibility of thus advancing Public Money unauthorised by Your Lordship. At the beginning of the month of March, the mortality from Yellow Fever having taken such serious proportions I requested the Chaplain to this Legation to inform me of the means at his disposal to meet the too probable emergency of a greater mortality amongst our fellow countrymen. He then informed me that a collection from the English Public here was being raised amongst the English Residents but that beyond what might be thus collected he had no other means at his disposal; that since the Fever had broken out at the British hospital the hospital Committee had resolved by order of the municipality not to admit Yellow Fever patients in future; that the sums which were about to be placed at his disposal would perhaps be sufficient to meet the actual wants and requirements of the English sick and poor, but that if an increase manifested itself in the number of cases, or in the event of a prolonged continuance of the epidemic, all his efforts would be unavailing to cope with the intense misery and distress which would necessarily accompany them under these circumstances, and seeing that the mortality was daily increasing, I addressed a circular letter to the English clergymen, the Scotch Chaplain and the Irish pastor, copy of which was enclosed in my No. 33 of 29th March to Your Lordship, informing them that I would render every assistance in my power on behalf of Her Majesty`s Government to relieve the widows and orphans of those of my countrymen who might fall victims to the Fever. By this time the number of deaths from Yellow Fever had risen from 100 to 300 daily, the mortality amongst our fellow countrymen had perhaps increased in a greater ratio owing to the circumstance that those so attacked were mechanics or workmen a class who live on their earnings from day to day and who finding themselves suddenly thrown out of work were wholly unprepared when visited by the disease to incur the ruinous but necessary expenses of medical assistance and medicaments. In reply to my circular the clergymen sent me the names of different families who required urgent relief. With a view to ascertaining the real condition and wants of the poorer classes of English subjects here I visited personally several of the different persons recommended to me; and the harrowing and distressing scenes which I then witnessed confirmed me in the opinion that the fever found ample scope for its ravages in the abandoned condition in which these poor people were left, deprived as they were of medical assistance, fit attendance, medicaments, and the most ordinary requisites of life. In some cases the patients had been abandoned for several days and were dying from utter neglect, in others, the panic was so great that no one would approach the infected houses or remove the dead, instances even occurred of children sharing the bed infected by their sick and sometimes dead parents, in every case destitution want and misery were but too evident. Alarmed at the widespread destruction of life, the apparent inactivity of the authorities the pusillanimity evinced by some of the medical practitioners in abandoning the city and the very sparing need of assistance if any extended to the English sick and poor by the authorities or the "Popular Commission"— which had then been formed — I did not hesitate to take immediate action in order to alleviate to the best of my ability the sufferings caused by the scourge amongst those whom I deemed it my first duty to assist and encourage. I accordingly published a notice in the English newspapers informing British Subjects, that confiding fully in the deep sympathy which Her Majesty`s Government would feel on their behalf I was desirous, in conjunction with Her Majesty`s Consul, at once to convey to our countrymen of all denominations, as an evidence of that interest, every assistance within the scope of my official authority and I therefore invited all the poor and afflicted persons who had been deprived of the means of support to make personal application to Her Majesty`s Legation or Consulate or through their respective clergymen. The mortality at this period ranged between 4 and 500 daily and my attention was called more especially to the utter lack of medical assistance. The insufficiency in the number of medical practitioners was to due to many of them having left the city and those who remained having devoted their spare time to the requirements of the Comision Popular. This prompted me to avail myself of the assistance of an English doctor who had lately arrived here and who at this emergency most generously offered to further the cause of humanity by placing himself under my direction to assist the English poor. From the 24th of March to the 15th May Dr Greenfield attended on behalf of Her Majesty`s Legation 102 cases as reported in my despatch No. 64 of 29th ultimo and distributed 225 prescriptions & moreover lent his services to a sort of Fever ward which was established under the care of the Revds Messrs Ash and Lett in a private lodging house. The services thus rendered by this gentleman cannot be sufficiently appreciated and though gratuitously tendered may, I venture to hope, meet with some deserved mark of recognition at the hands of Your Lordship. The enclosed Statement of Expenses will be found by Your Lordship to be supported by vouchers. No. 1 is the acknowledgement of the Minister for Foreign Affairs of the sum of $2500 (£20.18.8) which it was agreed by the foreign representatives we should respectively remit on behalf of our governments to be applied to the relief of the general distress. No. 2 is Dr Greenfield`s account for different small sums which he distributed amongst some of his more destitute patients amounting to $341 or £2.17.1. No. 3 is Dr Greenfield`s account for horse hire from March 24th to May 15th amounting to $1496 or £12.10.2¼. No. 4 represents the sums expended at the different Pharmacies for medicaments and necessaries supplied to the sick poor in accordance with Dr Greenfield`s prescriptions. The prescriptions will be found attached to the bills the totals of which amount to $5291 or £41.6.2. No. 5 is the list of moneys distributed by Her Majesty`s Consul in relieving the destitute and sick and those out of employ or otherwise distressed by a cessation of work. All doubtful applications to Her Majesty`s Legation were referred to Mr Parish for enquiry. This item amounts to $9575 or £80.3.9¼. No. 6 is the list of sums distributed by the Revd Mr Ash in assisting and relieving the sick, supporting widows and orphans, providing nurses, hearses, coffins &c &c amounting to $5998 or £50.4.5½. No. 7 is the list of moneys similarly disbursed by me viz. $7560 = £63.6.2½. No. 8 is the receipt for $3440 or £28.16.1d of the Lady Superior of the Sisters of Charity in charge of the French Hospital for receiving and attending to my sick servant under the following circumstances: When the epidemic broke out I removed my family to the outskirts of the town. I myself attended at the Chancery daily from 9 till 5 and left the Chancery servant to guard the house and archives during the night; in the performance of this duty he was violently attacked with fever. Unable to obtain his admittance to the English Hospital, unable likewise to procure a room in town to remove him to or even a nurse to attend him and being aware that if he died in my house I should be exposing not only Mr Thipp (who was in attendance at the Chancery) but likewise the persons who visited me, to a very great risk, I applied for and obtained as a special favour that the man whose case was hopeless should be admitted to a private room in the French Hospital. Due to the care and attention bestowed on him there he recovered after suffering 43 days of an attack of fever of the most violent character. Having now submitted to Your Lordship the above detailed account of the several sums disbursed by me on this afflicting and melancholy occasion and trusting that under the unprecedented circumstances above stated Your Lordship will regard the amounts thus employed small when compared with the good attained and with the aggregate of suffering mitigated and appeased I entertain the hope that Your Lordship will do me the honor to approve my conduct in this respect and sanction the reimbursement of these sums, the total of which I propose to insert in my Extraordinary Account for this quarter, and which amounts to $36,201 at $25 to the silver dollar at the exchange of 50½d to the silver dollar, equal to £303.3.6. I have the honor to be, with the highest respect, My Lord Your Lordship`s most obedient humble servant H. G. MacDonnell The Earl Granville, K.G. Foreign Office. London

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