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time my own view that the object of rat-catching was
primarily the extermination of the rat, and that this was
even more important than the localization of a plague-
-infected house, or the accumulation of statistics. Con-
-clusions as to plague-infected areas were moreover often
vitiated by the fact that the Chinese threw the rats which
had died in their houses to some distance in order to
avoid the disinfecting operations.
The Board advised that the
suggestions of Dr. Clark should be adopted. In this advice
I concurred, for I was very strongly of opinion that it
was above all necessary to enlist the sympathy and co-
-operation of the Chinese population without which it had
already been proved to be hopeless to achieve any real
progress in the prevention of Plague.
7.
The Staff of rat catchers was
therefore dispensed with and ende: vours were made through
the newly established Kai Fong, or Street Committees,
(who
assembled at Government House to the number of some 200
and were addressed by myself and also by Dr. Ho Kai) to
enlist the co-operation of householders in the extermina-
-tion of rats.
The subsequent communication with
the
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