CO129-348 - Governor Sir Lugard - 1908 [7-10] — Page 105

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loud in their complaints that the value of property had been

arbitrarily decreased and that Chinese had been driven from the

Colony. The representations of the latter urged that the

regulations caused great hardship and that the practical result

had been to substitute for wooden cubicles partitions of

blanket and mats, which were much less Sanitary and less easily

disinfected. In these matters the recommendations of the Com-

-mission were so vague that Mr. May before my arrival found

himself under the necessity of appointing a new Committee to

make definite proposals. A copy of their report, and a full

account of the action taken has already been given in my Despatch

of 11th. instant.

11.

The Commission urge the paramount

importance of gaining the willing co-operation of the Chinese,

instead of incurring their passive resistance and antipathy

but they did not clearly indicate the methods by which this

desirable end was to be obtained. It appeared to me

so soon as

I had made myself familiar with this subject, that the key to

the whole question lay in the solution of this problem. To this

end many steps have been taken into the details of which I will

not enter here. Street Committees have been appointed; Dis-

-pensaries, Hospitals, and Infectious Diseases Hospitals under

Chinese management have been started or encouraged where

previously