406
(6)
Those of the inhabitants who elected to leave the Colony were permitted to do so, a watch being kept to see that they actually did leave,
It was found impracticable to give the people longer notice than is above described, for if time was afforded they with all their rags and rubbish disappeared before the eviction parties arrived and dispersed themselves throughout the town only to infect new localities.
The ticket system worked extremely well and without it it would have been impossible to carry out the removals as rapidly and smoothly as was done.
It is calculated that when the emptying of Taipingshan was begun there were about 7,000 persons residing there. Of those over 4,000 were as stated above removed and housed in the houses leased by the Permanent Committee while the remainder, or the large majority of them, left the Colony. Altogether 400 houses were emptied and closed.
21. It should be mentioned that on the 4th of June the search parties in the Central District were strengthened by the addition of P. C. BURGESS, which made it possible to place 5 of the parties in charge of a Police Officer each, while Inspector GERMAIN took charge of the sixth.
On the 8th of June the search parties in the Western District were streng- thened by the addition of P. C. McÏVER.
22. The work of emptying houses in Taipingshan having been completed on the 14th of June 50 of the men of the Shropshire Light Infantry employed on the work with Colour Sergeants WYLDE and PRICE were employed under Messrs. CROW and BROWNE on special disinfecting work which has been described in a report by those Officers, while the remaining 50 were utilised in removing the inhabi- tants from condemned houses in the Western District. From these 2,000 people were, during the next three weeks, removed to houses leased by the Permanent Committee at Kennedytown and to vacant houses in the District.
During the same period a row of houses on Praya East and some filthy lanes in the Eastern District were emptied of their inhabitants who were housed by the Permanent Committee in a row of new houses off the Queen's Road East. The persons removed numbered 300. There were 161 houses, 134 basements and 39 floors closed in the Western and Eastern districts,
23. Simultaneously with the removals from Taipingshan there was instituted a cordon sanitaire to protect the Eastern District from the incursion of persons from the plague infected districts. Police were drawn from Gibbs Wharf to Robinson Road across all the roads cominunicating with the Eastern part of the town, and extra Police were also placed along the Praya from Causeway Bay to Praya West to prevent persons migrating by water.
24. On the 17th of June 1 Officer, 6 Non-Commissioned Officers and 24 men of the Hongkong Company of the Royal Artillery were sworn in as special Cons- tables and detailed to assist the Police in maintaining the cordon sanitaire round the Eastern District.
25. On the 19th of June the Shropshire Light Infantry cleaning gangs were reduced to 190 Non-Commissioned Officers and men with 6 Officers.
Gangs were now formed of 15 coolies with 1 Non-Commissioned Officer and 5 men to each.
The latter were thus relieved of doing much of the manual labour in cleaning a house, and their work became more that of supervision.
One man was usually placed to superintend the work on each floor while a Non-Commissioned Officer supervised the whole.
The number of gangs employed were still maintained at 15, the surplus soldiers being employed in burning at convenient places on the Praya and in the streets the rubbish removed from houses in process of cleaning, and in collecting infected bedding and clothing.
26. On the 21st of June the 50 Non-Commissioned Officers and men engaged on removing people from condemned houses were dispensed with and the Royal Engineers were reduced by 6 in number.
Of the remainder of the latter & were put on fumigating with chlorinated lime, while one remained in charge of fires and one at the Cemetery and 2 on the work of collecting infected clothing and bedding.
(7)
The fanigating parties used now to assemble at the Tung Wa Hospital at 8 A.M. and note the addresses of patients admitted and sent on to the Plague Hos- pitals.
They would then proceed to fumigate the houses. The houses were fumigated for 5 consecutive hours.
In the afternoon the parties would go round and collect the utensils they had used in fumigating.
27. On the 23rd June a house-to-house visitation at Yaumati under Police Constables RAE and WATTERS was instituted. After a week's work the latter fell sick and Police Constable PEPPER took his place. At the same time Inspector MANN commenced a personal visitation of all the houses in Shaukiwan distributing chlorinated lime and Jeyes' Fluid in each house and inducing the inhabitants to clean and whitewash their premises.
On the same day the two European Police Officers on duty at the Cattle Depôt were withdrawn and the work of supervising admissions and seeing dead bodies coffined and limed was taken over by the European Wardmasters.
28. On the 27th June an inspection of all launches and boats going to the recently established Hospital at Lai Chi Kok was begun by the Police.
The result was that a large number of sampans were found (a) leaving the Colony without permits, (b) having plague patients on board, (e) that several launches were found having plague patients on board, (d) and a large number of visitors were found going daily to visit their friends at Lai Chi Kok. (a) were prosecnted, (b) and (c) were (after they had discharged their patients) detained and disinfected; and the addresses of all patients were taken and the houses they had come from, if within the Colony, disinfected.
29. On June 30th the inspection of all junks, launches and steamers arriving in the Colony from Canton, the Canton River, or Macao, was commenced under the supervision of the Harbour Master,
The Police launch on duty as described off Lai Chi Kok assisted in driving junks during the day to the inspection anchorage, and another Police launchi did similar duty at the western entrance to the Harbour from 6 P.M. to 6 A.M. every night.
30. On the 2nd July the removal or curtailment of illegal cocklofts was begun, a start was made in the Eastern District and gradually extended to the Central and Western Districts and to Kowloon.
31. On the 3rd July the Shropshire Light Infantry cleansing gangs were reduced to 94 men and 4 officers. On July 8th the Royal Engineers were reduced by 2, and on the 12th of the same month the Royal Engineers at work at the Cemetery were dispensed with.
32. On July 23rd the disinfecting party of 25 men of the Shropshire Light Infantry was returned to regular duty.
33. On the same date Mr. CROOK was able to report that all the houses throughout the Colony in which plague had occurred, together with all the insani- tary dwellings which had been closed by the Permanent Committee, had been thoroughly cleaned and disinfected.
The services of the remaining men of the Shropshire Light Infantry were therefore dispensed with and the work of cleaning houses in which fresh cases of plague occurred was entrusted to gangs of coolies supervised by the remaining men of the Royal Engineers.
During the 2 months that the men of the Shropshire Regiment were engaged on work in connection with the plague there were employed 14 officers, 4 Colour Sergeants, 52 other Non-Commissioned Officers and 438 Privates.
The total number of plague infected houses cleaned by men of the Shropshire Light Infantry and subsequently by the gangs working under the Royal Engineers was 1,103.
34. During the time these men were at work cleansing and disinfecting houses, only two specific complaints were made against them. One of rape was made by a married woman who had formerly been a prostitute against a mun of the Shropshire Light Infantry engaged on fumigation, and was found on investi- gation to be entirely unfounded.