Enclosure No.1.
MEMORANDUM.
16
Dent
this
1.
To find a point of departure for an outline of the
facts leading to the organisation of the public health services
of this Colony recently expressed so far as legislation is
(3) 53590, 53609), 53548, 53603, 53615, 135,HIC concerned in Ordinances Nos. 7,9,12,13,15,16 and 18 of 1935
one must go back to the year 1924, when an outbreak of typhoid
gave rise to much criticism of these services on the part of
the local press. Criticism eventually centered on the obvious
point that, while the Principal Civil Medical Officer was the
technical officer responsible for the health of the Colony
(Hong Kong Hansard 1928, page 70) he had no standing in the
Sanitary Board and no control over the services comprised under
the Sanitary Department, which, since the 1908 amendment of
Public Health & Buildings Ordinance, following on the report of
a Commission of enquiry, had been under lay control. Popular
dissatisfaction was expressed in a motion of the Sanitary Board
carried on 9th September, 1924 to the effect that the department
should be reconstituted under charge of a qualified sanitarian.
2.
In February 1926 Sir C. Clementi called on the
Principal Civil Medical Officer (the late Dr. Addison) and the
Head of the Sanitary Department to put forward concrete proposals
for closer co-ordination of the Sanitary and Medical Departments.
Agreement was found to be impossible, as the Principal Civil
Medical Officer regarded all sanitary activity as matter for
technical control, while the Head of the Sanitary Department
claimed that matters of simple order and cleanliness, though
bearing on public health, did not require such expert super-
vision and were, in the circumstances of this Colony, better
left under the charge of those conversant with Chinese psycho-
logy and custom. Further conferences and discussions failed
to resolve the difficulty.