C 20
Sixteen (16) Chinese women and children suffering from leprosy were brought to this office to be placed if possible in the hands of their relatives, 8 being sent from the Alice Memorial Hospital, 4 from the Police, and 2 from other Hospitals; while 1 came to this office to be passed as a prostitute, and 1 to ask for her passage home.
Of these 16:-
7 had come to Hongkong for treatment.
2 were on a visit.
7 were living in Hongkong.
One further suspicious case was investigated but found to be free from the disease.
The Rhenish Leper Asylum at Tung Kwun was again opened to cases from Hongkong, and kindly received two lepers, but the asylum at Coloane being full, the Portuguese Authorities at Macao had to refuse an application for admission. The other patients were handed over to their relations or sent to their homes chiefly through the agency of the Tung Wa Hospital.
Under the arrangements made with the Secretary for Chinese Affairs at Singapore, 249 Chinese who were repatriated from the Straits Settlements were sent on to their destinations in China and given travelling expenses.
Under similar arrangements made with the Protectors of Chinese in British North Borneo and at Penang, four decrepits from Borneo and eight from Penang were likewise sent back to their homes.
The Anti-spitting Society under the organisation of Mr. S. W. Tso continued to display considerable activity. The Society's lecturers still deliver lectures on the river steamers, and further notices have been affixed to walls and trees in prominent positions throughout Victoria requesting people to spit in the gutters, and not on the pavements and side-walks.
Labour Trouble.
A serious strike of the printers and compositors occurred towards the end of the year. The trouble originated in the office of the South China Morning Post, in an assault by a European on a Chinese employé, and was nursed by the agitators of a powerful guild which controlled the "hands" of practically all the sections of the printing trade of the Colony.
It was difficult to discover exactly what the grievance was: as by far the larger number of the men seemed satisfied and un-willing to join in the strike, and there was no sympathy with the strikers in the Colony, and even Canton found it necessary to exhort the men to return to work. It appeared in fact that there