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The Colonial Veterinary Surgeon and the Assistant Colonial Veterinary Surgeon are attached to the department and on the department's pay roll.
Neither the Medical Officers of Health, the Veterinary Surgeons nor the Sani- tary Inspectors are servants of the Sanitary Board and there is nothing in the Ordi- nance other than Section 8(2) which gives the Board power to control their actions.
Attached to the Department are 44 Interpreters who are members of the clerical service and who are not shown on the Department's estimates.
Nomination and training of Sanitary Personnel.
All Sanitary Inspectors are Europeans.
No special qualifying educational test has been laid down as is the case in Malaya, and candidates are not referred to the Medical Officer of Health before be- ing recommended for appointment by the Head of the Sanitary Department.
The Medical Officers of Health and the Chief Sanitary Inspector hold classes and give lectures but there is yet no regular school for teaching such as exists in Malaya.
Hong Kong is an examination centre for the Royal Sanitary Institute and every year examinations are held for the Sanitary Inspector's Certificate, for the Sanitary Science Certificate and for the Meat and Food Certificate.
The examiners are the Director of Medical and Sanitary Services who is Chair- man of the Board of Examiners, the Director of Public Works, the Medical Officer of Health, the Health Officer of the Port and the Colonial Veterinary Surgeon.
Candidates come from so far distant as Shanghai to sit for these examinations.
The results of the last two years' tests have, so far as Hong Kong is concerned, been decidedly disappointing. The unanimous opinion of the examiners was that the Shanghai candidates showed a far more thorough knowledge of the subjects than did those from Hong Kong.
One of the chief reasons for the high percentage of failures among the local Inspectors is the absence of a proper school for training.
Sanitary Department's Standing Orders out-of-date.
In the book of Standing Orders and Instructions, in the keeping of the H.S.D., are to be found instructions for the M.O.H. The first of these states that "He shall advise the Sanitary Board and the Government on all matters affecting the health of the Colony and shall report on any question relating to sanitation that may be referred to him by direction of the Board".
The second states that "He shall direct and superintend the work of the Sani- tary Inspectors and of the entire Sanitary Staff working under his supervision and shall report to the H.S.D. any delinquencies on their part coming to his observa- tion".
These are departmental Standing Orders and Instructions which were issued by the Head of the Sanitary Department 1911-and which have never been amended. They should, of course, have been brought up-to-date in 1924 and 1928.
Government in its letter of 11.9.24 addressed to the Sanitary Board declared the P.C.M.O. (now the D.M.S.S.) the Officer responsible to Government for the Pub- lic Health of the Colony.
At the Legislative Council Meeting of September 1928 Government stated that with the view of bringing the Medical more closely in touch with the Sanitary Depart- ment and to give the Sanitary Board the advantage of the experience of the Medical Department "the Principal Civil Medical Officer becomes Director of Medical and
Sanitary Services and will be responsible for the technical side of the work of the Medical Officers of Health and for the advice that they will give to the Sanitary Board".
It is quite obvious that by this declaration the D.M.S.S. through his Medical Officer of Health is the adviser to the Sanitary Board on all health matters.
It is also obvious that the Director being responsible for the technical side of the work of the Medical Offeers of Health these Officers should be directly under him for such work, for no man can be made responsible without power of control,
The only point over which there can be difference of opinion is what exactly is meant by the word technical. The Oxford Dictionary defines "technical" to be "of or in or peculiar to a particular art or science or craft" and it is presumed that in this case the Government meant sanitary science.
It was failure to concur regarding the meaning of the word sanitary which prevented the H.S.D. and D.M.S.S. from coming to agreement regarding re-organisa- tion in 1924 and the absence of an accepted definition has confused the issue ever
since.
From the context of the Government's letter of 11.9.24 it would seem that Government's interpretation of "technical" was that part of sanitary science which required for its intelligent execution such a training as is required by the medical curriculum as distinct from that which deals with cleanliness and order and which does not necessitate a medical training for its proper execution.
The nett result of six years' argument regarding reorganisation of the Sanitary Service is that the practice today remains what it became in 1908 and what it has continued ever since, viz., a cadet ILS.D. directing all sanitary services in the Colony other than that which deals with maritime quarantine and port health work.
The D.M.S.S. does not direct the technical side of the work of the Medical Officers of Health and he has no control over the advice given by the M.O.H, to the Sanitary Board.
The work performed by the Sanitary Department.
The work of the Sanitary Department may be considered under thirteen head- ings as follows:-
1. Measures for town cleansing, viz., street cleansing, scavenging and
disposal of refuse.
2. Measures for conservancy and night-soil disposal.
3. Domestic sanitation measures-house cleansing and action re the provision of light and air and the prevention of overcrowding.
4. The promotion of sanitation in places of assembly, e.g., common lodging houses, boarding houses, hotels, restaurants, eating houses, theatres, etc., etc.
5. The promotion of sanitation in factories including breweries, distil-
leries, workshops, and in connection with offensive trades.
6. Measures for ensuring cleanliness in foods, viz., control of food fac- tories (bake-houses, confectioneries, food preserving establishments) and markets.
7, Measures for the prevention of importation of diseased animals or
articles infected with the germs of animal diseases.
8. Measures to prevent the spread of disease from animal to animal.
9. Measures to prevent the spread of disease from animals to man.
10. Measures for the prevention or mitigation of epidemic endemic, con-
tagious or infectious disease
11. Measures for the disposal of the dead.
12. The collection of samples under the Sale of Food and Drugs Act
and the prosecution for offences under this Ordinance. 13. The Registration of Births and Deaths.
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