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Hong Kong, it is illogical to deal on the principles of the Venice Convention with vessels arriving there from plague-infected ports of distant countries.
Undoubtedly there is, so long as Hong Kong's chief danger of plague is importation of that disease from ports near at hand, something in this contention. But it may be questioned whether Mr. Bell is not, as regards vessels "coming foreign" from a distance, protesting against a practice which is in excess of the requirements of the Convention. He speaks of "quarantine of inspection" (a term not familiar to us in England) under which, as it appears, all vessels from infected ports (inclusive of vessels using Hong Kong merely as a "port of call") are relegated to the "quarantine anchorage", there to remain for perhaps a day or two until inspected. Neither the Convention nor the draft Hong Kong regulations submitted to us last year require that "healthy ships" from infected ports should be thus dealt with. I do not understand why such vessels are not dealt with as in this country: Namely, ships arriving at Hong Kong as their port of destination admitted at once to pratique as soon as ascertained (by Customs, by Port Officer or by both parties) to be actually as well as technically healthy; and ships using Hong Kong as a "port of call" subjected...
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