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by the opportunities offered for employment. It is estimated that the civil population of the Colony is 979,440 of which 550,000 reside in the City of Victoria, 270,000 in the Town of Kowloon, over 100,000 on boats in or about the harbour and the remainder in villages.
7. The Chinese outnumber the rest by 50 to 1, the great majority being illiterate working people who reside in Hong Kong because of the facilities for employment but who return to their native towns and villages when too ill or too old for labour. Through this exodus the death rate of the Colony is considerably lower than it otherwise would be.
8. The traditional beliefs of the uneducated Chinese as to the cause of diseases, the means of spread and the factors which affect its course are so at variance with modern teaching, that there is little chance of promoting voluntary co-operation between them and the authorities in the matter of the prevention and control of disease, until they can be brought to understand the true nature of the problems and are conscious of the usefulness of the measures advocated. The proximity of China and the constant intercourse makes it harder to overcome prejudices than is the case in countries further afield. The greatest hope lies in propaganda and education.
9. So closely related are Hong Kong, Canton, Macao and the River Ports in the matter of trade, and such is the amount of traffic both human and goods which pass between them that, up-to-date, it has been found impossible to devise any system of quarantine which would effectually safeguard one city against introduction of disease from the other and, at the same time, preserve that freedom of commercial movements on which these cities depend for prosperity. It has been deemed best to treat them as forming one unit, as suburbs the one of the other, and to strive for a working agreement between the various health organisations to the end that some means, other than imposing restrictions against a whole port, may be found to prevent the spread of infection.
10. The machinery for the promotion of the Public Health in Hong Kong is complex, in that organisation of energy both for the cure and the prevention of disease is divided among a number of units, governmental and non-governmental, which operate more or less independently of one another under conditions which can hardly be said to be conducive to co-ordination or co-operation.
11. In 1927 the Medical Officers of Health were transferred to the pay roll of the Medical Department though they still remained seconded to the Sanitary Department.
During the year under review a further step towards the co-ordination of Medical and Sanitary work took place in the
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by the opportunities offered for employment. It is estimated that the civil population of the Colony is 979,440 of which 550,000 reside in the City of Victoria, 270,000 in the Town of Kowloon, over 100,000 on boats in or about the harbour and the remainder in villages.
7. The Chinese outnumber the rest by 50 to 1, the great majority being illiterate working people who reside in Hong Kong because of the facilities for employment but who return to their native towns and villages when too ill or too old for labour. Through this exodus the death rate of the Colony is considerably lower than it otherwise would be.
8. The traditional beliefs of the uneducated Chinese as to the cause of diseases, the means of spread and the factors which affect its course are so at variance with modern teaching, that there is little chance of promoting voluntary co-operation be- tween them and the authorities in the matter of the prevention and control of disease, until they can be brought to understand the true nature of the problems and are conscious of the use- fulness of the measures advocated. The proximity of China and the constant intercourse makes it harder to overcome pre- judices than is the case in countries further afield. The greatest hope lies in propaganda and education.
9. So closely related are Hong Kong, Canton, Macao and the River Ports in the matter of trade, and such is the amount of traffic both human and goods which pass between them that, up-to-date, it has been found impossible to devise any system of quarantine which would effectually safeguard one city against introduction of disease from the other and, at the same time, preserve that freedom of commercial movements on which these cities depend for prosperity. It has been deemed best to treat them as forming one unit, as suburbs the one of the other, and to strive for a working agreement between the various health organisations to the end that some means, other than imposing restrictions against a whole port, may be found to prevent the spread of infection.
10. The machinery for the promotion of the Public Health in Hong Kong is complex, in that organisation of energy both for the cure and the prevention of disease is divided among a number of units, governmental and non-governmental, which operate more or less independently of one another under condi- tions which can hardly be said to be conducive to co-ordination or co-operation.
11. In 1927 the Medical Officers of Health were transferred to the pay roll of the Medical Department though they still remained seconded to the Sanitary Department.
During the year under review a further step towards the co-ordination of Medical and Sanitary work took place in the
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