COP T.
ENCLOSURE
20157
Abstract of Leader in the Tsun Wan Tat Po of the 20th June, 1901.
681
Concerning measures to be taken with regard to the Plague especially those necessary to tranquillize the minds of the People.
Some one has asked us to explain how while vigorous measures are taken against plague there is no difference between its spread in Hongkong and in Canton, where though there is a plague hospital and a proclamation enjoining the clearing away of dirt this last is probably not carried out fully. 'Is it', he asks, 'that plague cannot be eradicated; or that proper means have not been discovered?'
We answer:- Calamities from Heaven occur constantly in all countries. How can man contend with fate! But Officials are not willing to have it relegated entirely to fate but wish to some extent to fulfil the duties of their Office. Hongkong Officials have this view and have inaugurated many measures while, without discouragement, they continue to act with integrity and firmness.
That Chinese and Foreign customs differ cannot be helped. The vile satisfies Chinese; they hate trouble, valuing the material substance and esteeming lightly life. They are frightened and startled on hearing of going to hospital, of the use of lime in coffins, and disinfection, and look on these as acts of oppression. Thus in a panic they flee or conceal cases of plague in order to escape the hospital and they prefer often to place corpses in the street so as to escape disinfection. Chinese are so determined in their disposition that neither laws nor arguments will change them.
If the methods of dealing with the plague were efficacious, Officials might endure their hard tasks without paying attention to complaints; but as the present methods have been tried for many years and the plague still remains, the Sanitary Board should relax the stringency of its regulations and quiet the people's minds.
We know that the Governor loves the people as his own children and sympathizes with their feelings. In his benevolence he has directed the flushing of the drains and the providing of bath-houses so that all thank him and his praise is heard throughout the Colony. No boon to the Chinese would be equal to the approving of Mr. Osborne's plan of treating plague patients in their own houses and allowing dead bodies to be taken to the country. We hear these ideas emanate from His Excellency. Although the first has not been carried out the permission to take dead bodies to China is an act of the greatest benevolence. No wonder the Chinese are grateful for it and soon the streets...