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THE HONGKONG WEEKLY PRESS AND
· TO THE EDITOR OF THE "DAILY PRESS.'
[August 26, 1897.
Again, as cholera is propagated by contamina- | CIVIL SERVANTS AND THEIR PAY. ] domiciled in silver-using countries, do not darw tion of water or food, the Chinese habit of making their cookhouses the storeroom "for the pot-system" is specially dangerous, and too much çare cannot be exercised in keeping out
SIR,-In your leader this morning, referring to the gentlemen that rise each morning with the disease. Likewise it is argued that because renewed hope that exchange may drop, you small-pox is endemic here, a few cases more or less landed can make no difference. But small-officers and the employees of various home com- say: Including naval, military, and civil pox is not prevalent amongst Europeans, yet a panies that pay in sterling." few months ago three or four hotels in the colony were infected through passengers landed from the Tonkin steamer, and a large number of the circus troupo contracted the disease hare. These cases were only discovered because a private practitioner was called in twelve hours after the landing, during which time infected persons were mov- ing freely about. Although two of these cases showed well-marked signs of the disease and one had been lying ill in the saloon for three days, no report was made by the commander; nor was any prosecution instituted against him. Vaccination is a most excellent protective, but does not do away with the necessity of reason- able preventive measures.
Civil officers are not paid in sterling. Even with half salaries made up to 3s, many men are drawing now less pay then they did before they ever saw Hongkong. The Hongkong Govern- ment followed the example-they did not set it-of some commercial firms in granting ex- change compensation. but they did not follow the example in its entirety and grant compen-change, our sation at 3s 4d. to the dollar.
The pension of the public servant is not a favour graciously accorded him in Hongkong alone; it is his inalienable right, to which the public faith is pledged, the condition precedent to his employment; it is his own deferred pay paid to him in accordance with the Civil Service One of these cases found its way to Canton, Regulations governing Colonial servants in all was brought back at 1 a.m. and reported to the Her Majesty's Colonies. It (the pension) Health Officer (Dr. Clark) and the cabins represents to a slight extent the price locked and disinfected. Late in the afternoon below the market value at which the labour has the Port Health Officer turned up and ordered been engaged, and is a very sound investment the ship, then loaded for Canton, into quaran- for the Governineut, representing a gain of tine, the little difference of opinion between the some 50 per cent. from men who never draw two Health Officers costing the Hongkong, Can-them, the savings of the starvation wages paid ton, and Macao Steamboat Co. some thousanda for years previously, of dollars. Surely such a system must not only be wrong, but radically inefficient.
The land and boat populations and shipping communities are brought into such frequent and intimate contact that one health department can alone adequately deal with the sanitary questions constantly arising.
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On the third point, impracticability, too much has been taken for granted. The only occasion on which a real supervision of the harbour has been attempted was in 1894, and then it was carried out by the Permanent Committee of the Sanitary Board without assistance from the Port Health Officer's department. At this time all ships and junks were boarded. In 1896, likewise, the Cantou steamers, passenger- launches, junks, otc., were closely supervised by the Sanitary Board, and numerous cases of plague detected and dealt with, and I have no hesitation in saying that had these or similar measures beon adopted early in 1894 the epidemic of that year would in all probability not have exceeded that of 1896. In both years the plague was imported; in 1896 individual cases were at once detected and isolated; in 1894, the disease was wide-spread before discovery.
I take it that Dr. Clark's suggestion of $50 guarantee for every Chinese passenger landed from an infected port is intended as a preventive measure, or obstacle. We don't want coolies landed
here from an infected port, and this suggestion, if enforced, would necessitate greater care on the part of shippers, and would undoubtedly diminish the numbers to be dealt with here. The other alternative is forbidding such immigration.
The number of medical officers-two-origin- ally proposed by Dr. Clark seems to me suffi- cient, but that is a matter for consideration. Dealing with emigrants from Hongkong is not an intergral part of the Port Health Officer's work-he simply does it, and is paid for it, as a private practitioner.
No one is more opposed to unnecessary inter- ference with shipping than the writer, but I certainly can see no reason why this port should not adopt protective measures similar to other large shipping centres,
We certainly have local conditions to con- tend against, but there is no insuperable dif- ficulty to be overcome. The number of Chinese coming across the frontier is small. Aberdeen and Stanley can easily be supervised by, the Police, and all reasonable precantions can thus be taken against the introduction of infections disease. Our motto should be "the maximum of protection with the minimum of interfer- ence," but to be content with our present sys. tem, or rather want of it, can only be described by Dr. Clark's word "deplorable."-I am, sir,
yours.
WILLIAM HARTIGAN, M. D. Dipt: State Med.
Hongkong, 22nd August.
Compare the salaries paid here to the Euro- pean officers and the nature of their duties and responsibilities with the salaries paid in the Banks. Very few employees of Banks, I take it, contemplate retiring in their old age on the incomes civil servants have to vegetate on, and they have had, too, all the best years of their life fair incomes, wealthy by comparison with the officials.
Civil servants are debarred from adding to their incomes in any way. If fortunate enough to be able to save anything they may not invest their savings locally, where they are best able to judge of the soundness of the investments; they may not own land or houses, except the one they live in.
House rent to the bank employer is an un- known quantity; he is housed.
There are men who have been public servants and yet have deliberately thrown away the ad- vantages you so glowingly portray for the un- certainties and hardships of civil life, and ap. parently have done so without regret.
One more correction and I have done. The Widows And Orphans' Fund" referred to is not furnished from general revenue; it is a small snm deducted monthly from each officer's pay. By no stretch of imagination has the public servant to thank the generous public for the pittance that may accrue to his widow or little oues after his death. It is his own money honestly earned, poor though the pay may be.
In all small communities it is generally a safe card to play to hint that the officials are ignoraut, idle, useless, and overpaid, but I venture to think it is neither just nor generous. In this case, however, they appear to have been dragged in to emphasise the hardships to which the Chiuese Customs officers are exposed. Is it to be counted as evil to the civil servants in Hongkong because pensions are in their boud, continuity of office during good behaviour, and because they make provision for their widows and orphans ?-Faithfully yours,
FAIRPLAY.
Hongkong, 19th August, 1897.
THE SUBORDINATE MEMBERS OF THE CIVIL SERVICE AND EX- CHANGE COMPENSATION.
TO THE EDITOR OF THE DAILY PRESS." Sir,-in the matter of the fall in exchange affecting employés you have given your power ful support to the officers of the Imperial Customs, and "Fairplay" has come forward as the champion of those members of our Civil Service who are in receipt of exchange com- pensation. On behalf of those members of that Service who are not in receipt of exchange compensation, allow me, who am not a public servant, to raise my feeble voice.
It is not generally known that the majority of the public servants of this place, being
exchange compensation at all. Now, as every- one should know, they-excepting of course the Chinese-are as much affected by the decline in the value of silver as their more fortunate con- freres or as all those persons whose habits are European. As the value of silver goes down, the prices of shirts, collars, hats, clothing, socks, school books, batter, and numerous other articles, all products of gold-using countries, likewise rents of houses owned by landlords resident in England, go up in proportion, Thus, they do remit to gold-using countries, though indirectly, and thus, while our "compensated" civil servants may or may not welcome every drop in ex- uncompensated" ones curse it. The Portuguese, who compose the majority of them, applied to the Secretary of State for permission to draw exchange compensation, but he did not see fit to grant it. Those who are responsible for Mr. Chamberlain's unfavourable decision should bave known better. By their contact with the Portuguese they see that the habits and customs of these men are European in the strictest sense of the word. Neverthe- less, in spite of the evidence of their own senses, they advised the Secretary of State not to graut the prayer of the Portuguese petition.
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The lot of the subordinate members of our Civil Service is not a happy one. For them there is no system of promotion. These depend altogether on the caprice of the powers that be. Leugthy and faithful service is not generally, at least in this colony, taken into consideration, though the Colonial Office Regn- lations provide that, when a vacancy has to be filled, preference should be given to officers passessed of that qualification. Thus there are at present many officers who, though they have served the Government faithfully for a long time, have never been able to obtain a "lift," having been passed over in favour of men comparatively new, often altogether new to the service. Further, the subordinates are not in all cases treated considerately by their principals. Among the latter, let me add, there are exceptions. There are heads of de- partments who, placed by accident in import- ant positions, never forget that common courtesy which man owes to man and who are above the folly of assuming airs which can serve no other purpose than that of exciting ridicule.
I am writing in the interest of all those public servants, irrespective of nationality, who are affected by the fall in exchange, but who do not receive exchange compensation, and would appeal to His Excellency the Governor to recommend their case to the Secretary of State for favourable consideration.
As this letter concerns the welfare of a numerous class of public servants, I would beg you to be good enough to publish it. I would go further; I venture to hope that yon will give them your powerful support, as you have given it to the employes of the Imperial Maritime Customs. I remain, your faithfully,
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Hongkong, 2nd Angust, 1897.
OMNIBUS,
THE MILK ADULTERATION CASE.
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TO THE EDITOR OF THE "DAILY PRESS.' DEAR, SIR-I would esteem it a favour if you could kindly grant me space in your columns for the following comments upon the recent case of milk adultoration reported in the Hong. kong Daily Press.
In his evidence, Mr. J. T. Cotton is reported to have said that he went down Queen's Road East, and waited till the men left with the two tins, and shadowed him all the way to Mr. Ken- nedy's place at Garden Road."
If this was actually what Mr. Cotton said I have no hesitation in declaring that he was mistaken in so far as he supposed he identified the man he shadowed to Garden Road with the man from whom he had just purchased his milk for analysis, inasmuch as the dairyman who was convicted at the Police Conrt on Mr. Cotton's evidence neither does now, not has ever, sup- plied us with milk, and that he does not do so is borne out by Mr. Cotton himself, who admits that the Chinaman asked him later in the day not to repeat his, the dairyman's, statement that he supplied us with milk, thus, in fact, denying
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