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SECTION IV.
PORT HEALTH WORK AND ADMINISTRATION.
GENERAL
266. Reckoned in terms of shipping tonnage, Hong Kong is one of the five greatest ports of the world. It is the principal commercial entrepot of Southern China and it is the terminus of steamship lines running between China, Japan, and North America.
267. In 1932, 5,014 British ocean-going steamers and 6,475 foreign ocean-going steamers entered and cleared the harbour. In addition there entered and cleared 11,017 river steamers, 7,294 launches, and 22,559 foreign trade junks. The total tonnage of vessels entering and clearing was 41,794,005,
268. The Medical Staff engaged in Port Health duties con- sists of two European Health Officers and two Chinese Medical Officers.
269. The work of the department includes:-
(a) Routine inspection of ships.
(b) Quarantine duty.
(c) Duty in connection with emigration.
(d) Vaccination.
270. The laws dealing with the subject of Quarantine and Port Health are contained in Table L of the Hong Kong Port Regulations, the Asiatic Emigration Ordinance and the Vaccina- tion Ordinance.
271. During the year 5,752 inward bound ocean-going vessels were boarded by the Health Officers. Of these 2,510 were on the British register and 3,242 on the foreign register.
272. River steamers from Canton, Macao and West River Ports, also junks and small crafts were only visited when cases of sickness or death were reported.
273. During the year 316 special visits were made to ships for the purpose of examining persons suffering from infectious but non-quarantine diseases. 67 permits for the landing of corpses for burial were granted and 26 bodies were sent to the mortuary for post-mortem examination. 11 cases of leprosy were detected amongst Chinese passengers.
24 Chinese, 3 European and 1 Japanese lunatics arrived in the Colony during the year. Bills of Health numbering 1,943 were issued,
274. The number of vessels arriving in Quarantine was 1,215 with 183,055 passengers and crew personsel of 130,007. These figures show great increases over those for 1930 and 1931 and constitute a new record. All were examined and the passengers and crews of those vessels arriving from smallpox infected ports were vaccinated.
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275. Excluding arrivals from Canton the total number of persons medically inspected during 1932 was 430,482 or an average of 1,179 examinations per day.
276. One hundred and two vessels were fumigated during the year. Fumigations are carried out by a private company but each operation is supervised by a Health Officer.
EMIGRATION,
277. The Asiatic Emigration Ordinance No. 30 of 1915 re- quires that emigrant ships shall have :-
(1) Proper and sufficient living accommodation.
(2) Proper and sufficient sanitary requirements.
(3) Proper and sufficient hospital accommodation.
(4) A sufficient supply of drugs, medical equipment and
disinfectants.
278. It also makes provision for :-
(1) A proper diet scale.
(2) The prevention of the export of the unfit.
(3) The prevention of the export of infectious disease. 279. The Vaccination Ordinance 1923 requires that all emig rants from the Colony shall be protected against smallpox by vaccination.
280. The duty of carrying out the sanitary and medical in- spection and for vaccinating those who are insufficiently protected falls on the Port Health Authorities.
281. Emigrants are classified as:-
(a) 'Free emigrants' or those who pay their own passages. (b) Assisted emigrants or those whose passages are paid
by their prospective employers.
(c) Women and children.
282. The total number of emigrants examined during the year was 62,563 of whom 60,973 were free and 1,590 assisted. The number of rejections was 120.
283. Owing to the continued trade depression in Malaya, the Government of that country further restricted the number of Chinese immigrants from Hong Kong and China. This restriction contributed largely to the reduction of total emigrants for the year to 62,563. This figure shows a very marked decrease in numbers of emigrants compared with 105,727 for 1931, 193,209 for 1980, 235,554 for 1929 and 288,745 for 1927.
VACCINATION.
284. The Government Vaccinators are members of the Port Health staff and work under the general supervision of the Port Health Officer. They are detailed for work at various centres and they assist where needed.
285. The number of vaccinations performed by three Officers at the centres was 51,054 of which 3,574 were emigrants.
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