CO129-348 - Governor Sir Lugard - 1908 [7-10] — Page 104

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extensive and onerous duties. No objection was offered to the

appointment of a Cadet Officer in his place but in my view it

was essential that there should still remain upon the Board a

Government Medical Officer and I proposed that the Medical

Officer of Health should take the place of the Captain

Superintendent of Police so as to admit the vote of one expert.

This proposal when made by one of my predecessors had led to the

resignation of all the Unofficial Members. I was willing to

substitute another Government Medical Officer for the Medical

Officer of Health but it would have been difficult to find an

Officer with sufficient time, and with specialised knowledge. I

am most glad therefore that my view in this matter though at

first much criticised and opposed in the local Press &c., was

unanimously accepted in Council.

10.

The Commissioners criticised the

policy hitherto pursued in the question of cubicles. In the

pursuit of a wholly desirable ideal drastic regulations had

been framed, and the proviso enabling the Governor-in-Council

on the recommendation of the Sanitary Board to grant exemptions

or modifications had been overlooked. The conditions of Chinese

life, the structure of the vast majority of existing tenement

houses, and the prejudices of the people had been ignored in

the endeavour to promote Sanitary reform. Property-owners were

loud