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When the Director of Medical and Sanitary Services has replaced the Medical Officer of Health as a member of the Sanitary Board the Government will await such recommendations from him in the public health administration as his experience of the working of the Sanitary Department may prompt him to make.
In January 1930 Sir Cecil Clementi in his farewell address to the Legislative Council said "We need and must have a Sanitary organisation co-extensive with the Colony and its New Territories and reform in this respect is long overdue."
In July the Director of Medical and Sanitary Services forwarded to Government his report on the working of the Medical and Sanitary Departments and submitted recommendations for re-organisation.
In October the Director of Medical and Sanitary Services was relieved of his duties as a member of the Sanitary Board and the Medical Officer of Health was re-installed. In the same month the Director of Medical and Sanitary Services paid a visit to Shanghai for the purpose of studying the health system of the International Settlement and that of Greater Shanghai,
In December Government appointed a "Public Health Committee to examine the proposals made for re-organization," which Committee was still sitting at the close of the year.
A factor which very effectually slowed progress in matters connected with re-organization was the decline in value of the local dollar. Owing to the difficulty of balancing the budget hopes of expansion had to be temporarily abandoned and retrenchment seriously considered. Vacancies for a Secretary to the Medical Department, a Dental Surgeon, a Senior Health Officer and two Health Officers were left unfilled and the launch proposed for dispensing relief to the boat population, was not built.
In June Government appointed a Retrenchment Committee to make enquiries regarding the staff, organization and working of all departments. At the end of the year neither the Medical Department nor the Sanitary Department had been examined by the Committee.
N.B. Since writing the above, the 1931 Census has been taken and the preliminary returns show that the total population of the Colony, exclusive of the Naval, Military and Air Forces, is only about 855,000. As the full figures are not yet available it has not been possible to make the necessary corrections in the Report. Corrected figures will appear in the Report for 1931.