CO129-348 - Governor Sir Lugard - 1908 [7-10] — Page 189

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Government Civil Hospital,

Hongkong, 23rd. July, 1908.

Hon. Principal Civil Medical Officer,

I much regret the inconvenience to which

the Colonial Office was put in the case of Lofthouse.

of

The Secretary of State's Despatch No. 12

9th. January, 1908, refers to lunatics. As this man could

not have been certified I concluded that the procedure laid

down in the above despatch could not be adopted in his case. To

the best of my recollection I told the attendant that if no

one met then and no further instructions were received from

the Colonial Office at Southampton it would be better to take

the man to London.

I was not aware that you could hand over

a stranger to the Poor Law Authorities at a port without

special instructions from the Central Authorities and so it

seemed to me that there was no other course open but to convey

him to London.

I beg again to apologise for the great

inconvenience caused to the Colonial Office,

(Sd.) J. Bell.

ang tighe an by 19