No. 199.
Hongkong.
Sir,
C.O. 23277
Government House,
11 JUN 021
Hongkong, 13th May, 1902.
204
April 11902
You 12555
I have the honour to transmit for your information the enclosed six copies of a Preliminary Report by Mr. Osbert Chadwick, C.M.G., on the sanitary condition of Hongkong.
2. This Report has been laid before the Legislative Council, but as I have not yet had an opportunity of conferring with the Director of Public Works or the Executive Council as to its recommendations, I do not propose to enter at present into an examination of the various subjects with which it deals. It will be observed, however, that Mr. Chadwick writes at considerable length on the subject of the Water Supply, a matter which, owing to the small rainfall of last year and the prolonged drought which has existed throughout the Winter and up to the present time, has become one of the most serious of the many difficult problems with which this Colony will have to deal in the immediate future. I am also informed by old residents that the yearly rainfall of late years has undoubtedly declined. I shall probably have occasion before long to address you on this subject again, and I have already transmitted a report thereon under cover of my Despatch No.72 of the 28th February last, but I may take this opportunity of observing that the extreme discomfort
THE RIGHT HONOURABLE
JOSEPH CHAMBERLAIN, M.P.,