The condition of the Police during these months, would have been much worse, but for the valuable accommodation that has been afforded them, by Major General D'Aguilar permitting cases to be received into the Hospital of the 98th Regt and there to receive the attention that can be bestowed only in a Hospital. It has frequently happened, however, that men taken suddenly, and severely ill, could not be removed, from the state of the weather or the distance at which they reside, without serious risk; and a few severe cases, scattered as the Police Stations are, over a space of nearly four miles in extent, and mostly in places of difficult access, give an amount of work, that one man can with difficulty accomplish, and puts him to a very heavy strain.
I would here allude to the comparative healthiness of the Police during last year. We were then supplied from Regiments on service in China, and, as a man became sick, he was sent back to his regiment, and a healthy man got in his place; there was no sickness among the Police, but a large portion of the Military suffered severely in that service.
Before closing this report, I would take the liberty of directing Your Excellency's attention to the Seaman's Hospital at Whampoa, and the necessity of having some public Institution, partly supported by, and under the control of Government for the accommodation of those public servants, who have no claims...