(6)
out of an average population of 740,000, recorded 18,310 plague attacks, out of which there were 13,928 deaths. These mortality figures represent correctly diagnosed cases. If suspicious cases are added, the plague mortality is brought up to 25,645. But this is not all; for in that same disastrous year there were 46,000 deaths set down as due to ordinary causes; and as these "ordinary" deaths were 22,000 in excess of the normal annual death-rate, it may be assumed that some of them were also due to plague. The total number of deaths from all causes in Bombay during 1899-1900 was 71,801, representing a death-rate of 97.02 per mille.
If the Hongkong community realised the terrible significance of these figures, it would congratulate itself that the colony had been so fortunate. Proportion- ately, far more money was spent in Bombay, the preventive arrangements were far more elaborate, and the population was probably more amenable to precautionary measures, and in particular to inoculation. Moreover, we are inclined to think that there was, and still is, not much essential difference between the sanitary con- dition of Bombay and Hongkong. Yet Hongkong has not, in seven years, had to face a total plagne mortality of 10,000. Under the circumstances, the sudden agitation in Hongkong about the inefficiency of the Government preventive mea- sures strikes the observer at a distance as rather amusing, and to some extent ungrateful. If the far wider experience of plague now available in India may be taken as a criterion, the Hongkong Government is entitled to a large amount of credit for having kept its plague epidemics within such narrow limits. The Hong- kong public may be recommended to study the history of plague in Western India. They will then discover that public bodies in India realised in less than seven years that petitions and "representations" had no effect on the plague mortality, and that business men ultimately came to the conclusion that the measures for fighting a disease of which so little is known, were best left in the hands of Government and their skilled advisers.
In one respect the last longkong epidemic presented a feature for which no parallel can be found in India. In six weeks, in the not very large European community, twenty-five persons were attacked and nine died. Possibly it was the unexpected revelation that Europeans were less immune than was supposed, which caused the residents in Hongkong hurriedly to draft a formidable petition to the Secretary of State. The majority of their grievances are of purely local interest, and need not be specified here. They complain that nineteen years ago a sanitary expert was brought out from England to enquire into the sanitation of Hongkong, and that "with a few exceptions the whole of his recommendations have been ignored." A memorandum signed by Mr. STEWART LOCKHART, C.M.G., Colonial Secretary, and two other members of the Administration, makes short work of this rather reckless allegation. By no stretch of imagination can Hongkong be des- cribed as sanitary; but Mr. LoCKHART and his colleagues clearly demonstrate that nt any rate Mr. CHADWICK'S recommendations have been carried out, save only those which would have imposed an impossible strain upon the limited resources of the colony. The petitioners have artlessly placed before Mr. CHAMBERLAIN an assertion made by Dr. J. A. Lowson in 1895 about the ease with which a plague epidemic could be. "got under rapidly if men in sufficient number could be got to do the work." Upon such windy observations as this their case seems to be based. We in India know something about the armour-plated self-confidence of the Hong- kong plague experts; but apparently these prophets are still enjoying unusual honour in their own country.
The one strong point in the petition is the appeal for the appointment of a Commission to investigate and report upon the sanitary condition of the colony. The implication of lack of confidence in the Hongkong Government contained in this request has, however, been largely discounted; for a similar suggestion has been forwarded to the Colonial Office by Sir HENRY BLAKE, the Governor. The