CO129-410 - Governor Sir May - 1914 [3-5] — Page 248

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I am afraid I have not made it sufficiently clear from

A of my Report and B of my minute of 23/3/14 that rat destruc-

tion has not been abandoned, but has merely been systematized

and made discriminate rather than indiscriminate.

Instead of suddenly, during the early part of each year,

distributing rat poison to every native dwelling in the City

and in Kowloon, with the result that, in spite of all advice

and warnings, some of the occupants promptly deposit it in the

rubbish bin, others place it in unsuitable positions and others

again, more frugally minded, carefully put it away in a box for

use at some future date (by which time it has ceased to be

attractive to rats) we now concentrate our attention on infect-

ed blocks, for as soon as a Plague rat is discovered I send

out to the Inspector concerned the attached printed notice

(which has been in use for two or three years past) which

instructs him to distribute rat poison in the vicinity, inspect

all neighbouring houses, fill up rat runs, attend to missing

gratings etc.

The rat poisoning is thus made ancillary to those other

measures without which its effects are purely transient, while

at the same time any temporary reduction in the rat population

that we may thereby secure occurs in the most dangerous locali-

ties.

I am convinced however that all these measures must be

ineffective so long as there is an ample food supply for the rat-population and therefore urge the necessity for more thorough scavenging and more frequent house to house cleansing

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as the measures which in conjunction with those already in force - are likely to prove most effective in controlling

Plague in this Colony.

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