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especially for the establishment of Sanitary precautions in the Red Sea and Persian Gulf,* where great danger of propagation of plague exists through the means of pilgrimages.
5. It does not appear to me that the regulation
was a contravention of the Venice Convention. It was made in
1896 and to realize its usefulness one must understand the còn - ditions existing in Hong-Kong, and also something of the feel- ings of the Chinese.
6. There are in Hong-Kong a large number of wealthy Chinese whose feelings on the subject of burial in the ancestral grave are at least as strong as are those of ardent Christians on the subject of Christian burial. To those people the idea of burial in a plague cemetery in Hong-Kong is repellant to the last degree, and the terror was such that it was found that in 1896 when Chinese began to feel ill they went across the harbour into Chinese territory at once so as to escape plague regulations if the illness developed into plague. The result was that the epidemic was spread in the sur- rounding country and reacted upon Hong-Kong. The regulation checked this exodus by calming the fears of the Chinese,
se.al- though it is evident that none but persons of means could take advantage of it. As the Acting Colonial Secretary shows in his letter to the Colonial Secretary of Singapore, but three re- movals took place in 1898, none in 1899, and only one this year.
The
the result of rescinding this regulation will be the renewal
of nervous agitation among the Chinese and the hasty departure
of
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