CO129-473 - Individuals - 1921 — Page 363

E.

REFRIGERATING MACHINERY AT EAST POINT.

INTERIOR OF KOWLOON BRANCH DEPOT.

health, interests and welfare of the consumer, the interests of the share- holders have been jeopardized and even sacrificed thereby. The Colonial Government, under whose protecting care we live, give your directors no encouragement to continue the maintenance of their establishments at Pokfulum, situated, as you know, several miles from Victoria; for we are led to believe that had our farm been in or near the town, the Govern- ment most probably would not have assumed the attitude or followed the course they elected to pursue in our case, when rinderpest attacked our cattle and we applied to them for much needed assistance. The attitude assumed by the Government was as follows viz. :- your herd are a long distance from town, a menace or danger to no one, and we will endeavour to prevent as far as possible the contagion being carried by you or others beyond your own premises. We will, therefore declare, your premises infected, place a guard of police about your property, and allow no person or thing to leave the premises; whatever is within shall remain within, and whoever may be within shall remain there, that he may not be the means of carrying contagion beyond your premises. This order was, we think, the death-knell to our herd (hear, hear), but was only operative as regards our cattle, our European Manager, and his European assistant. Natives, however, could go in at the back, and come out again when they liked, and a score or so of the contaminated coolies actually bolted; and further, it did not prevent a regiment of soldiers from passing over ground saturated with the excreta and blood of many diseased or slaughtered animals, and afterwards passing through our non-infected property and within close proximity to the sheds containing some of our healthy animals, which had not hitherto been exposed to the contagion of the fatal malady. They then marched along the Pokfulum Road, through the town, and proceeded to their quarters in Kowloon, carrying on their garments the blood of these diseased animals. As we have said, had our establishment been in town the course pursued, would, in all probability, have been that carried out with the Chinese dairies in Wanchai and Kennedy Town some five years ago, when they were visited with a similar epidemic. The Colonial Veterinary Surgeon at once condemned the sick and healthy animals, and they were immediately slaughtered and put into junks and removed for burial, at the expense of the public. The carcases of our cattle were disposed of at our expense. Later the Chinese owners were compensated for the loss of the slaughtered animals, as is done in most countries, not excepting we believe Japan and the Transvaal, where, we are informed, the Matabele outbreak was caused by the Government insisting on the diseased cattle

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