CO129-222 - Acting Governor Cameron Governor Sir Bowen - 1885 [7-10] — Page 322

(7).

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Gladly would His Excellency be releived of the responsibility imposed on him, by clause 2 of the Regulations, of proclaiming certain Ports; but he would be happy to undertake any responsibility rather than run the risk of having Cholera in an epidemic form imported into the Colony in its present incomplete Sanitary condition.

Hitherto His Excellency's powers have been so exercised as to cause no more inconvenience to the Mercantile Community than if no Quarantine Laws existel; and not only that, but as the correspondence in this Office would show, he has done his very best to free all ships leaving this port from any restrictions as regards Quarantine to which they might have been liable at their respective destinations during the present outbreak of Cholera.

SIR,

I have the honour to be,

Sir,

Your most obedient Servant,

(Signed).

FREDERICK STEWART, Acting Colonial Secretary.

HONGKONG GENERAL CHAMBER OF COMMERCE, HONGKONG, 25th August, 1885.

I have the honour to address you with reference to your reply of the 8th instant to this Chamber's letter requesting information as to the circumstances which render impracticable the adoption of the regulations referred to in paragraph 4 of Lord DERBY's despatch to His Excellency Governor Sir G. F. BOWEN of 13th February 1885, and to previous correspondence on the subject of Quarantine.

The opinion of this Chamber, as you are aware, was requested by His Ex- cellency the Governor on the 9th April last respecting the question of Quarantine, with a view to early action by the Government and by the Colonial Legislature; whereupon the Committee recommended the adoption of regulations framed entirely on the same basis as those prevailing in the United Kingdom.

I am desired by the Committee to state that they deeply regret that, after their representations upon the subject, and the hopes which were held out that the Quarantine Regulations of this Colony would be placed upon a footing similar to that which exists in the United Kingdom, no steps have, up to the present, been taken to attain so desirable an object.

The Committee would again point out the urgent necessity of at once taking steps to carry out the regulations referred to in paragraph 4 of Lord DERRY'S despatch to His Excellency Governor Sir G. F. BowEN dated 18th February, 1885, which is as follows:-

"If Quarantine were abolished, it would be necessary to give the Governor in Council the power of making regulations similar to that possessed by the Local Government Board under Section 130 of the Public Health Act 1875, and it would

The Honourable F. STEWART, LL.D.,

Acting Colonial Secretary.

and

be necessary for the Governor in Council to make regulations for the detention and examination of ships suspected of being infected with Cholera, or coming from

passengers places infected with Cholera; for the medical examination of the crew, and for the removal from the ship and the detention and treatment in proper isolated places of the sick persons on board; for the disinfection of the ship, and for the disinfection or destruction of all infected articles on board similar to those made by the Local Government Board in their Order of 12th July, 1883. A copy of that Order is enclosed for your information, with copies of the accompanying letter to the Sanitary Authorities, and of a Memorandum by the Medical Officer of the Board on Precautions against the Infection of Cholera.

The Committee desires, also, to call the attention of His Excellency the Governor to his despatch of the 19th December, 1884, to the Secretary of State, from which the Committee gathers that Her Majesty's Government are not in favour of the adoption of the system of Quarantine, and in which it is stated that- there is a complete agreement among all who have a practical acquaintance with the subject either in India or in the United Kingdom, that the generally received theory and practice of Quarantine is not only useless, but also hurtful.”

The Committee are unable to gather from the reasons alleged in your letter, in what manner or measure this Colony is to be more effectually protected from the introduction of Cholera or other infectious disease from other Ports, by a con- tinuance of the present system of Quarantine, than by the adoption of such regula- tions as are considered quite sufficient for the protection of the United Kingdom.-- The Committee moreover entirely fail to understand how the detention of Foreign ships or steamers-from which there is far less danger of introduction of disease to be apprehended than from native vessels--can be efficacious in preventing the spread of disease, when the Executive expresses its inability to exercise adequate super- vision over the large number of native junks which enter the barbour from nearly all the Ports on this Const.

If the Executive of this Colony is unable to exercise complete supervision over all vessels, native or foreign, that enter the waters of this Colony, then it is hardly necessary to point out that the system of Quarantine insisted upon by the Colonial Government is wholly inefficient and utterly useless, and that foreign vessels will be submitted to the injustice of detention and loss thereby entailed, while native vessels where every endeavour is made to conceal disease' are to be allowed to escape, in consequence of the inadequacy of the staff of the Executive to enforce a proper system of inspection.

With respect to the concluding paragraph of your letter in which reference is made to the present outbreak of Cholera,' I am desired to state that, up to the present time vessels leaving this port have been provided with clean Bills of Health, which the Committee presunes would not be done were the Port infected with Cholera; though the Committee is aware that a sporadic form of choleraic diarrhoea has been prevalent in this Colony during the summer months.

The Committee desire, also, to call attention to that portion of their letter of the 15th July referring to the erection of a permanent Lazaretto on Stone-Cutters' Island which has apparently been overlooked, and which runs as follows:-