0. 3.
Telegr
t
Localise, Parl, London." Telephone-Whitehall 4300.
Please address any further communication on this subject
to-
The Secretary.
FOR
SCHEME
MEN
MINISTRY OF HEALTH,
WHITEHALL, S.W.1.
January, 1939.
12
2
Sir,
Please quote the following reference
IIIC(1)/96034/1/1.
13 JAN1939
C.
I am directed by the Minister of Health to refer to your letter of the 2nd December (53609/38) enclosing a draft of proposed new Regulations under the Hong Kong Quarantine and Prevention of Diseases Ordinance, 1936.
Regulation 3(f) requiring vessels and aircraft to be deratised "if the restrictions are imposed on account of typhus" appears to be inconsistent with the International Sanitary Convention, 1926, and the International Sanitary Convention for Aerial Navigation, 1933, and the Minister is advised that it is contrary to present day knowledge of the aetiology of epidemic typhus. If the Regulation is intended to control endemic typhus (Brill's disease) which is spread from rats occasionally by the rat flea, the Minister has no information showing that such restrictions for this form of typhus are ever imposed.
The Under-Secretary of State,
Colonial Office,
S.W.1.
I am, Sir,
Your obedient Servant,
Daslypward