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THE HONGKONG WEEKLY PRESS AND
long as 18 hours and even then not be examined. He is a little inconsistent here. Imagine the result if the English mail was de- tained 18 hours in the harbour for nothing, not even the pleasure of a visit from a medical officer. The ship has lost by this at least $500 in wages alone. It would not take the P. and O. Co. and other shipping firms very long to be up in
arms.
In conclusion, I submit that a series of more unpractical "suggestions" than those put for- ward by the Medical Officer of Health it is scarcely possible to conceive and could only have been put forward by one quite unac- quainted with the ways and means of the im. migration, emigration, and shipping of the colony generally. Further, I beg to submit (1) that this colony cannot at present adhere in its entirety to the articles of the Venice Convention; (2) that it is impossible to have a medical inspection of all vessels without a very heavy increase in the cost to the Go- vernment; (3) Medical surveillance is imprac- ticable in this colony.
8
I can suggest to effect this is by adopting the Chinese national custom of guarantee such as is already required of common, lodging-house keepers, licensed boatmen, Chinese constables, district watchmen, 'ricksha and chair coolies, and even house-boys. The Health Officer of the Port must know that the furnishing of a guarantee by the above-named Chinese is purely matter of insurance (the usual rate being about 5 per cont.) and that to avoid any such complication as that instanced by him in the second paragraph of page 5, the local shipping agents wishing to import Chinese from infected ports would probably act as their own under writers in this matter. In other words, it would cost a Chinaman desirons of shipping from a port which had been proclaimed as infected to Hong kong about $2.50 more than the ordinary fare, and in this way would undoubtedly relieve the the colony of a number of destitute sick, while putting no insuperable difficulty in the way of the movements of the more reputable Chinese. In reference to the danger to the colony from the cases of cholera imported by the Cheang Hok The only practical deduction is that a neigh-Kian, it is useless to enter here into an ac- bouring port having an epidemic disease pre-ademic discussion upon the etiology of this vailing should be unhesitatingly proclaimed infected and medical inspection necessarily follows; the sick from any infected vessel removed to hospital as speedily as possible, the healthy allowed to go free, and the vessel thoroughly disinfected and released. Further, let the sanitation of the colony be perfected as speedily as possible and a regular and rigorous sanitary inspection of houses be maintained with a thorough enforcement of all sanitary regulations applying thereto and epidemic dis- eases will not gain a hold in the colony, even though an occasional case may be imported from the shipping. This was the foundation and rock on which the Sanitary Commissioners from Her Majesty's Government to the Venice Conference stood and which was the back- ground of all their arguments. I have the honour to be, sir, your most obedient servant,
G. P. JORDAN, Health Officer of the Port. Dr. J. M. Atkinson, P.C.M.O.
In reply to Dr. Jordan's report the Medical Officer of Health wrote the following minute: -I am very glad indeed that the Board has been furnished with the views of the Health Officer of the Port upon this most important subject, even though they are so emphatically opposed to my own, and some of the arguments adduced by him "would certainly appear, to a casual observer, to be most conclusive, but un- fortunately they are all based upon false pre- mises and are therefore valueless as arguments against the adoption of a general medical in- spection of the shipping of this port. On page 3, for instance, he characterizes as ridiculons the idea that every one of the 2,030 (he gives this figure incorrectly as 2,300) passengers ar- riving daily in this port could produce a guar- antee of $50. If he had read my minute a little more carefully he would have seen that I made no such suggestion; the guarantee was only to be furnished by Asiatics, etc., arriving from ports which had been proclaimed as infected, in accordance with our existing Quarantine Reg- ulations, by the Governor in Council. Un page 4, after having stated that scarcely one of the Chinese immigrants possesses 50 cents, he assumes that the same number will arrive daily from an infected port and, instancing Canton and Macao as the proclaimed ports, asks how the ten days' accumulation of guaranteed pas- sengers, amounting, he suggests, to 14,000, can possibly be adequately kept under surveillance, and quotes a minute by the Captain Superin- tendent of Police from C.S.O. 974 in support of his contention. If he will look through some recent files of the Sanitary Board minutes he will find that the Captain Superintendent of Police is strongly in favour of prohibiting all Chinese immigration from infected ports, and a reference.to Ordinance 5 of 1895 will show that from and after the publication of any such pro- clamation no passenger of Chinese nationality, whatever his means or respectability, may enter the colony by land or sea from the proclaimed port. My suggestion is intended to obviate this hardship by permitting the importation of Chinese from infected ports on the condition that they can be kept under surveillance for a
[August 26, 1897.
The following minutes were also appended:- medical inspection of all vessels arriving in the The CaptainSuperintendent of Police-I think colony is not justified by past experience and therefore not necessary. Asiatics landed from infected ports is in this 'Surveillance " of
colony almost impossible. I think our present system has worked well and should be adhered to.
intended to cover the interval between 6 p.m. more than one vessel was awaiting inspection, and 6 a.m. and allow an hour or two in case
and seeing that vessels do not as a general rule. enter this port at night, I did not think any great hardship was involved. With three be made that no vessel arriving after sunset medical officers, however, the regulation could outside the boundary line should under any circumstances be detained later than three hours after sunrise the following day. As a matter of fact the detention of steamers would never amount to anything like the maximum time, seeing that less than thirteen a day arrive in this port and that most of them carry surgeons. One word more as to the cost of this scheme with three medical officers. No one can be a more ardent advocate of a free port than I am and I have therefore no intention of suggesting that any charge should be made on the shipping for this medical inspection, but as a matter of curiosity I have worked out the cost per ton and per vessel and I find that the cost per ton would be one twentieth of a cent and the cost for each steamer arriving in this port would be disease, for the Health Officer of the Port average of 3 cents. I submit, therefore, that a an average of 60 cents and for each junk an knows well enough that every outbreak of general medical inspection of the shipping of cholera that has occurred within the last fifty this port is eminently practical (as practical, years has been traced more or less definitely to in fact, as its application has already proved in the contamination of drinking water. I now the port of London); that its cost would be come to the question of the staff necessary to comparatively small, and that the protection to carry out a general medical inspection of the the colony would be considerable. Also that shipping of this port. It has been generally the Board may in reason recommend the Govern- understood by the members of the Board atment of this colony to become a party to the all discussions upon this subject that a medical Venice Convention and that the best way to deal inspection of passengers and crew of those with vessels arriving from infected ports is that steamers arriving in this port, carrying a surgeon, would be unnecessary provided that a
detailed in my minute of the 20th ultimo. certificate (somewhat similar to that furnished by the Customs officers at home) was signed by the Captain and countersigned by the surgeon, stating that there had been no sickness of an infectious nature during the voyage, and that the surgeon had seen every person on board during the 24 hours previous to the arrival of the vessel, and was satisfied that they were all The Acting Director of Public Works-It in good health. To prevent frand such surgeon
appears to me that the medical inspection of all must of course be a person entitled to be registered vessels arriving here is practicable, though no in this colony as a medical practitioner, under doubt there are considerable difficulties in Ordinances 6 of 1884 and 4 of 1893. only carrying it out. I take it that it is not suf regret that the Health Officer of the Port was fient to inspect merely the passengers but that not aware of this understanding among the every person on board must undergo inspection :- members of the Board, and its non-appearance in I am referring to the native craft more parti- our minutes results probably from the impression cularly. If this is so, then there are over 12,000 that this would be more a departmental regula-persons arriving at Aberdeen and Shaukiwan tion to be propounded at a later date when the
In the course of a year. It is in the inspection first principles of the inspection had been de- of the native craft that the difficulty lies, in my finitely agreed to. When it is remembered that opinion. The inspection is in great measure a all the mail steamers (including the P. & O., question of expense. O. & O., N. P., and C. P. R., and the Holt, Shire, and Glen and probably other lines) all carry surgeons, it will be seen that not many of the thirteen steamers arriving daily will require a very prolonged visit from the boarding Me- dical Officer. Thus the time of these officers will be mostly occupied in attending to the junks and what is called local traffic, which is, in my opinion, a very important element in the intro- cludes correspondence concerning the medical duction of infectious disease into the colony. I inspection of shipping and also the report of the am willing to admit that I had not, in dealing International Plague Conference held in Venice with this question, considered the subject of the in the spring of this year, which was sent medical inspection of emigrants, but as the to the Board for its consideration. Health Officer considers this as an integral part reference to the medical inspection of shipping. of the port medical work (although most of it is, that originated, I think, with the transmission or may be, done on shore) I must now say that by the Local Government Board of a series of three medical officers would be required and regulations dealing with plague, cholera, and that they should share the hours from sunrise small-pox in the ports of the United King- to one hour after sunset. (In the port of Lon-dom. These were likewise sent to the Board don four assistant medical officers work the 24 hours round, each taking 6 hours duty.) It ap- pears that the Health Officer has somewhat overstated the number of emigrants requiring medical inspection, for a reference to section 41 of Ordinance 1 of 1889 shows that only those proceeding to sea on a voyage of more than seven days' duration require certification, and from the Colonial Treasurer's receipts for last year this, number would appear to be about 230 per day instead of 593. However, with three medical officers I am cenvinced that the wok gould easily be accomplished between the hours of sunrise and an hour after sunset, and, moreover, that the delay to shipping, especially steamers, would be infinitesimal. With regard to the maximum detention of 18
}
The President-The Regulations of the Local Government Board, upon the considera. tion of which the motion of April 8th was made, refer only to infected ships and those suspected of being infected, and not to all ship- ping.
A discussion ensued.
The PRESIDENT This mass of
papers in-
With
for its consideration and at a meeting held it was desirable to establish in this colony the on the 8th April last the President moved that medical inspection of all shipping. I have gone to me that the members must have misread them. over these regulations carefully and it appears
ing the ports of the United Kingdom, but to The regulations refer, not to all shipping enter. infected ships or those suspected of being in- fected. I think you will find that is so if you refer to Part 2 of these regulations. All these regulations are practically carried out in this colony under the present system with this difference, that the Customs officer does not first board the vessels and that Article 15 is not carried out as surveillance is impracticable here. The boarding officer, who, I take it, practi-
short period after landing, and the only way that hours, it was, I thought, apparent that this was cally corresponds to the Customs officer, visited