376
THE HONGKONG WEEKLY PRESS AND
taminated by bubonic plague, and to have expert opinions as to the liability of various serous preparations to catch and retain virulence of any sort. It might be reassur- ing to the public if the real amount of such risk were authoritatively indicated. Owing to
very lengthy law reports, and the arrival of
mail matter,
011
new
i
[December 1, 1906.
Mr. HOOPER-I take it that this is a legal opinion?
The PRESIDENT—That is so.
Mr. HOOPER Then the legal opinion ought to accompany this.
The PRESIDENT-No. It has been ruled otherwise.
Mr. HOOPER-With all due respect to you, I think you are alluding to a document circulated amongst the members during your absence by the then P.C.M.O., and which was ordered to be laid before you on your arrival. That document was treated as confidential, but you are asking a committes of this Board to consider a question involving legal considerations without giving them the legal opinion. That is placing them in an anomalous position.
I think you are misreading the instruction.
The PRESIDENT-I have been instructed not to mike public any information given in this way by the Crown Soli ·itor. I don't thiok there can be any objection to the committee receiving such opinion. I will ask for instruc- tions on the matter
Mr. HOOPER-I think you are mistaken. The motion wis seconded by the Vice- PRESIDENT and carried.
TO ALTER THE HOUR OF MEETING,
The PRESIDENT, pursuant to notie of motion, moved: Tant the time of the meetings of the Bord be ohauged from 4.15 p.m. to 2.30 p.m."
calculated by figures. In the last few | sceptical people should not be forced to use | think it would be advisable to refer it back to decades, Germany and America bave climb it in the name of the common weal". The the committee. ed to the position of dangerous industrial | anti-vivisectionists and their kind will competitors. This has a familiar ring, and protest in horror that, not content with we fancy it has been mentioned before more maiming dogs and rabbits, the high priests than once. However, Dr. SCHMIDT avers of science have begun to deliberately that competition with the United Kingdom sacrifice human prisoners. The others is steadily becoming stronger, and that will have to again resort to the Jesuitical British trade, noticeably in the export of justification that the end justifies the cotton and iron goods, is quite perceptibly means. The three-cornered discussion losing ground. As a middleman or inter- will be none the less acrimonious because mediary, JOHN BULL is also losing his each point of view happens to have its prestige, and "although London is still the own modicum of truth. Weighing the first port in the world"-the Herr Doctor various arguments as we anticipate them, has apparently not heard of Hougkong's we are inclined to support the official view claims the monopoly of two hundred years of the incident as it is reported in the is now hardly worth entering as an asset; telegram. As touching the faith we have its good-wil! must be heavily written down. in the future of inoculation, we would be We should have thought it had been amply glad to hear evidence how and why the depreciated of late, but no matter. Of cholera virus was allowed to become con- Germany and her trade, our historian writes just as would be expected, and largely in consistence with the general German comment of the last two or three years. It shows, he says, a more magnificent development than any other commercial Power. Importing goods chiefly for her own consumption, and exporting chiefly her own products, Germany has managed to exactly double her trade during the last twenty-five years, the official figures giving the two extreme values respectively as equivalent to three hundred and six hundred million pounds sterling. "In the decade ending 1904 the value of German foreign trade has increased 66 per cent., that of Great Britain 38 per cent., the United States 59 per cent., and that of France 28 per cent. During the decade ending 1905 the transport facilities of the British merchant fleet increased 47
per cent., that of Germany 234 per cent., viz., from three and a quarter to seven and two-third million tons ". In face of these mathematical marvels, it seems somewhat unreasonable of Dr. SCHMIDT to accuse his capitalistic nationals of lack of courage and enterprise in the matter of foreign and colonial investment, but he was impressed by the fact that in 1870 Germany held £500,000,000 worth of foreign securities, which figure had since risen to £800,000,000. | On the whole, his couclusion, from the figures, is that the British Empire is unquestionably being ousted from its status of first commercial Power, and that Germany is to step into its shoes. So far as we have yet observed, the British Press has not been seriously overwhelmed by these disclosures.
THE FATAL MEDICAL EXPERIMENTS IN THE
PHILIPPINES.
(Daily Press, 30th November.) The definition ofa doctor as "one who uses remedies about which he knows a little to cure diseases of which he knows less in bodies of which he knows nothing" is not our own; it is merely recalled by the telegram published to-day referring to a fatal medical experiment in the Philippines, For a long time REUTER has sent us nothing more interesting, and we have no doubt that throughout the Far East, if not throughout the world, the incident will be made the subject of all sorts of comment. There will be those who will speak or write bitterly of medical science; there will be many senti- mental accusations of iubumanity; and there will be, we suppose, some who will take the will for the deed, and adopt the
The first 'medical and official view of it. will say something sarcastic, like "Science discovers a new serum, and long before there is time to judge of its ultimate action, the doctors ask impatiently why the stupid, |
we have not space to follow, ns we had intended, the three lines of argument sug- gested by the incident of the telegram, which readers will themselves pursue, according to their inclinations. There are the pseudo- Comteans, who will denounce the doctors for meddling with Nature's plan of destroy- ing the uufit; the sentimentalists, who will require a lot of persuasion before they will admit that it is as sensible to use criminals in this way as it is to convert refuse and rubbish into useful products; and the common or garden cynies, who will ostentatiously yearn
for all antitoxiu calculated to cure what they may call the deadly disease Zelus-medicus. On the ques tion of fact, merely, it seems a pity that the neighbouring therapeut were not content with a preliminary test on one prisoner only, to avoid such possible mistakes. It would have been time, after thus making sure, to undertake the wider field of observation that we admit is necessary in such research. But we have no desire to throw the first stone at these solliers of science: their mistake is, after all, less heinous than the mistake of a politician who precipitates a war; and the war they would wage, against disease, is an essentially moral war.
HONGKONG SANITARY BOARD.
A meeting of the Sanitary Board was held on November 27th at the Board Room. The Hou. Dr. J. M. Atkinson (president) presided, and there were also present Hon. Mr. W. Chatham (Vice-President), Lieut.-Colonel J. M. Reid. R.A M., Dr. F. Clark, Medical Officer of Health, Hon. Mr. A. W. Brewin, Registrar General, Hon. Mr. F. J. Badaley. Captain Superintendent of Poli e, Dr. Ĥ McFarlane, ssistant Medical Officer of Health, Hon. Mr. E. A. Hewett, Mr. A. Shelton Hooper, umphreys, Mr. Lau Chu-pak, Mr. Mr. H. Fung Wa-chua and Mr. G. A. Woodcock secretary).
SCAVENGING AND CONSERVANCY ́BYELAWS.
The committee appointed to consider the
question of enforcing these bre-laws in the rural districts reported their opinion that the applica tion of the bye-laws was limited by the wording of bye-law No. 1 to the City of Victoris, the hill district and the larger villages in the Clony, and that any district for which no provision of boats had been made, was exempt from the dust carts, dust bins, dust boats and conservancy
operation of these bye-laws.
The PRESIDENT-I am advised that No. 1 of these bye-laws does not apply in the way that the committee think, and that the bye-laws which govern this question are Nos. 3 and 8. I
Mr. HOOPER minuted-I quite agree with the President.
me.
Mr. HUMPHREYS-2.30 p.m. does not suit The present time is much better, I should think, for all business men.
Hoe. Mr. HEWETT-I cannot agres to give up an afternoon to the Sanitary Board meetings; Mr. LAU CHU-PAK-The change is not con- venient.
The DIRECTOR OF PUBLIC WORKS-I agree with the President.
The PRESIDENT-The Legislative Council meets at 2-30 p.m., and I think this time a much more suitable one for many reasons than 4.15 p.m. The Board meeting is held only once a fortnight and should not occupy more than an hour.
The PRESIDENT-As I have stated, this
is a more convenient hour for many reasons. Of course, it occurs naturally to one that if one meets at 4.15 p.m. some of the meetings have to be protracted, and that means that we are practically kept beyond the usual office hours observable in the Colony. The Legislative Council meets at 2.3), and personally I should prefer the bour to be 230. a these days one never knows what is going to ba sorung upon us, and one is much more fresh at 30 than at 4.15. If it is the wish of members I am quite willing to give way to the opinion of the majority.
The VICE-PRESIDENT seconded the motion. Hon. Mr. HawETT-I beg to move an amend. ment that the hour of meeting be as at present, 4 15 p.m. I quite understand, with all due deference to the official members, that it would be more convenient for them to do their official work during what are known as official hours. The majority of the Board are not official members; they are business men who have a great many calls on their time during ordinary business hours. But in a community such as this we are all called upon in our turn to
do a certain amount of work for what we believe
to be the general good, outside of offle hours. I and, I believe, my unofficial colleagues, ars in the same position; we have to give up a great part of our time to public work, and if business members weTO not prepared to come for. ward it would be a great misfortun- to the Colony. I don't make that statement in the belief that if any of us were driven from the Board our places could not be filled by people here as capable as ourselves. Personally, I am not prepared to give up an afternoon one a fortnight to this work, and I don't think it is. reasonable to ask basiness men to do so. if this measure is forced upon us, all I can say quite prepared to give up my leisure time, but
I am
is that I shall be very reluctantly compelled to represent the matter to H.E. the Governor, who has done me the honour to appoiat me, and say that can no longer serve on the Board. If you insist on carrying this out you will fad it