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This close proximity of the civil and military population renders all questions of the sanitary conditions of the civil population of extreme importance to the military Garrison and it is in the highest degree necessary to the fortress and naval base aspects of this station that a good sanitary condition should exist. Notwithstanding this close relationship which exists between the sanitary condition of the troops and the civil population Hong Kong forms an exception to the rule that exists at Malta, Gibraltar, Woolwich, Aldershot and in the Indian Garrisons that, where troops and civilians are thus intimately located together some representative of the military body should have a place on the Sanitary Council, Committee or Board which administers the sanitary laws of the place.
However possible it might be to ignore the nonrepresentation of the military element on the Sanitary Board of a healthy station in a temperate climate Hong Kong least of all could claim exemption on these grounds.
My Principal Medical Officer who has seen much of the place and has acquainted himself with its deplorable insanitary state has frequently reported to me that the conditions are