Habent of
hundred.
labour
Glassworks' hospital under the management.
The Tung Wah Committee became seriously overcrowded, there being some 200 patients in a building capable of holding about a hundred owing to the great scarcity of accommodation, it was necessary to build refuge huts fast. The new building recently finished for a Pig and Fowl Dépôt has about to be placed at the disposal of the Sanitary Board and the Staff of the Bacteriological branch. The hospital had offered its services to the Government.
I was heartened, however, before these transfers could be effected, factors of the Benevolent Hospital at Canton, through the agency of the Viceroy, requested that any sick Chinese subjects who were British subjects and were sent to Canton on vessels in case of death, their corpses might be forwarded in specially prepared junks to their native villages.
Several of the compradors employing large numbers of coolies also requested that they might be allowed to take the sick, wherever found, to Canton and they also gave a pledge that if at that time remitted they would remain in this Colony, and not take part in the general exodus. Failing that permission, they would have to leave at once, thus placing the banks and houses of businesses in an even more precarious position than they were at the time the application was made.
After serious consideration, I did not feel justified in acceding to their requests. It is true that the Chinese hospital was considerably overcrowded, and that the Chinese doctors had not proved that they were capable of dealing with the plague, whereas there was no doubt that compliance with the request would have more or less defeated the efficiency of the house-to-house visitation, and that cases of sickness would not have been reported to the Police as they were then and are now obliged to be.
After consultation with my Executive Council, the majority of members agreed with me.