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commencing with that of the 14th of May up to the one of which I am now speaking, and also the subsequent ones, were made by both Delegates of the Board, that all the decisions reached by these Delegates have been arrived at in common accord and sanctioned by the Board and the Ministry of the Interior. The above is in reply to the frequently repeated complaint of Chinese subjects to the effect that the visits of inspection were carried out by one Medical officer only. As neither the Master of the vessel, nor the officers on board nor the Chinese who were subjected to the inspection will dare to deny this fact, I here place the same on record.
I have clearly stated that the Steamer "Suisang" was now no longer under the direction of the Sanitary Authorities, and that her detention was occasioned by the action of the Company's Representative. As a proof of this, I will recall to mind that on the 13th of June the Delegate was instructed to make a fresh visit at the earnest request of the Company, to which I received a reply that the visit had accordingly been made on the 15th of that month, and that the presence of trachoma in the case of all the immigrants at that time on board the steamer "Suisang" had been once more confirmed.
As His Excellency the British Minister has specially called attention to the enforced withdrawal from the Port of the Steamer "Suisang", I proceed, in the following account, to summarise the facts expressed with greater detail in the corresponding telegrams.
The Steamer "Suisang" had remained in the Port, not for the purposes of the Sanitary Authorities, but because it was convenient for the interests of the China Commercial Steamship Company that she should do so, and on board of her were the 417 immigrants who had been rejected on the grounds of being afflicted with trachoma. In the visit which the Delegates were obliged to make to the vessel at the instance of the Company's Representative they found only 412 trachomatous persons on board, and ascertained that the remaining