MILITARY
(Contd.)
early years, even in the city area. However, the drainage schemes introduced later and the discovery towards the close of last century of the mosquito as a malaria carrier, have made such changes that Murray Barracks now are probably the healthiest in the Colony.
But the paper had other things to say of how the health of the troops in Hong Kong was being undermined eighty-five years ago: and it is interesting to find a reference to deleterious liquor which the men appear to have obtained "samshu" which the Chinese were selling them.
crude
678
-UT
I take the following further extract from the Friend of China and Hong Kong Gazette's issue in which it criticised the builders of Murray Barracks:
"Apart from the Barracks and exposure, which may be unavoidable there is one point to which we wish the local Authorities would direct their attention. The lowest class of Chinese,; the very lepers who cripple about the streets, have in their huts for sale a deleterious spirit known among us as "Samshoo. To Europeans particularly in warm weather this spirit is positively poisonous; nothing has been more clearly ascertained than the effects of this horrid drug - fever, stupor, apoplexy, congestion, have carried off hundreds of fine healthy young men who have indulged in it perhaps only once. It is so cheap that a man may get drunk for a penny, and we fear that its cheapness induces those who are only partially acquainted with its dangerous influences to drink to excess.
"That the men have been cautioned against Samshoo cannot be doubted; but mere moral influence is usually tedious in its results; the evil exists and is decimated, unless some stringent measures are taken at once. We are loath to propose any act which even in appearance interferes with the freedom of trade, but under the present circumstances were the legislature to pass an ordinance by which a severe castigation is inflicted, no one could reasonably complain.
"After being duly notified to the Chinese in their own language, and after a certain date, we propose that all parties convicted of the offence before any Justice of the Peace be liable to the infliction of "several dozens," and on a second conviction that they have the head shaved. Imprisonment with the Jail allowance of food is no punishment whatever; the class who are engaged in this traffic have no sense of the moral degradation either of imprisonment or flogging; the first mode of punishment is a mere waste of money, the second is immediate and touching, and the application of the razor in addition to the rattan will have greater effect than a year's imprisonment.
"If the ordinance extends to the harbour so much the better; Chinese boats are continually stealing under the bows of ships at anchor, and the poison is introduced among Seamen ignorant of its influence."
History does not record what effect this tirade had on the authorities. Presumably they were aware of what was happening: if not, the newspaper must have put them wise. It is a problem in no way new; and to some extent may exist even to-day; but it is interesting to find that early reference to one of the evils which our soldiers have to face.
To-day I am indebted for material to a member of the Royal Engineers now stationed in Hong Kong, for a most interesting summary of that Corps' connection with the Colony. The article was sent in to the Editor, who has passed it on to me for inclusion here. This history of the Corps in the Colony has been taken by the contributor from the History of the Corps of