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to the subjects of a kindly power. th to 16th June to Consul informed me " that the Viceroy had promised to assure the safety of
the Consulates but that he could not be responsible for the conduct of the people towards foreigners in the villages etc. outside of Canton, and that therefore his subjects and foreigners
had better keep themselves within doors.
18. From time to time I have kept Your Lordship informed of the progress of the plague, upon which you laid that there has been too considerable
the demolition by the ravages of disease hitherto, but I am happy to state that the last returns are
really more satisfactory and sanguine hopes are generally entertained that the mortality is at last over.
19. Owing to the number of persons it has been necessary to dislodge from the low infected houses in the Chinese quarter a number which the Government has estimated at about 7000; had to incur considerable and immediate expenditure. Numerous houses have
been vacated, and Government has hired blocks
of unoccupied buildings and godowns for the segregation and isolation of
the whom it has been necessary to keep under observation. Upwards
of 350 houses have already been condemned as unfit for habitation. They have been closed and locked up. A Cordon Sanitaire has also been established with a view of keeping persons from the infected portion of the Town - the West District - from migrating to the East District. Thousands of people, roughly estimated at 80,000, as I have stated in my telegram of the 16th June, have left the island for the neighbouring province within the last hour or so by every sort of native
conveyance - Sampans, boats, junks and river steamers. And I am informed that persons have walked on board the steamers as they lay at Whampoa and have died before they reached Canton,
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