No. 342
Hongkong.
CO 517/36000
16th September, 1904.
25762
Referring to your Despatch No. 227 dated the 28th July and to previous correspondence on the subject of the treatment of small-pox patients in the Naval Infectious Diseases Hospital, I have the honour to suggest that the arbitration which has been approved should not take place but that the Admiralty should be informed that this Government will raise no objection to the use for small-pox patients of their new building at Morrison Hill except in the case of an epidemic when more than 10 men require to be treated at one time.
2. I make this suggestion in the first place as I do not consider that the opinion of a third Officer can be looked upon as satisfactorily deciding a scientific question in which two Officers, both having full knowledge of the circumstances, hold divergent views.
3. I am also doubtful of the expediency of generally enforcing in Hongkong the principles as regards sites for small-pox hospitals enunciated in the memorandum issued by the Local Government Board in London in 1902. If these principles are not acted on in every case it is obviously not...
THE RIGHT HONOURABLE
ALFRED LYTTELTON, K.C., M.P.,