616
THE HONG KONG WEEKLY PRESS &
October 29, 1937
i
October 29, 1937
CHINA OVERLAND TRADE REPORT
617
BUDGET DEBATE
the present First Clerk who is a member of the Senior Clerical and Accounting Staff; and for the convenience of everyone, including the Police and the Legal profes- sion, he will be given a Court in which he will hear minor cases,
The cost of fitting up the Court is not great; beyond that no ex- pansion is involved only a certain redistribution of duties.
I am glad to learn that the re- cent street collection in aid of Typhoon sufferers met with a gen- erous response. The question of a grant by Government is now un- der consideration and I have no doubt that proposals will very soon be put before this Council.
WATER SUPPLY
Immense Consumption Increase Unforeseen
I come now to the vexed ques- tion of water. Without going into details I may say that I doubt whe- ther anyone was to blame for not foreseeing the immense Increase in consumption that immediately fol- lowed the completion of the Jubilee Reservoir.
The highest weekly consumption for the whole Colony in 1937 was 23 per cent. higher than the re- cord for previous years; in Kow- loon alone the excess was 31 per cent. figures like this would upset any estimate. Even so, the supply in the early part of this year would have been adequate if the Jubilee Reservoir nad filled in 1936; the shortage was in fact entirely due to lack of rain in autumn and
early spring and had nothing to
do with the capacity of the aque- duct or with the distribution sys- tem.
stili
In October
last we were hoping for an unseasonable down- pour but it never occurred to me that anyone would base strong hopes on a reservoir that was nearly empty at the beginning of the dry season.
COST OF WATER
The great problem of the cost of water which has been so long a subject of argument and debate is now, I hope, in a fair way of being sclved. The Financial Secretary has undertaken an investigation of the whole matter, and I feel that there is nothing that can usefully be said pending the receipt of his report.
A few months ago I was interest- ed to read in one of the Canton papers--I think the Canton Gazette --an article on the hawker pro- blem in that City. I was interested because I had heard it argued that
BUDGET DEBATE
Canton had solved the wy siniply disregarding it.
problem
na may пave been so in the past out it so 16 would seem that tae construction of wider streets
U moder ELLIGI The Juronчcuon ideas ΟΙ samication and traffic control nave rendered some formi of regulation essential.
The fact is that the hawker sys- tem to a great extent takes the place of various systems of poor rellet, and in a country where there are unfortunately many hundreds or thousands living on the edge of starvation, systems of poor relief are apt to be overworked.
UNRESTRICTED HAWKING Would Bring About Intolerable
State of Affairs.
La present circumstances, I feel sure that anything like unrestrict- ed nuwking would quickly bring about an intolerable state of af- fairs.
A large increase in the number of institutions for the aged and destitute, ΟΙ reformatories for street arabs and of homes for beggars and disabled persons might bring some relief but there is such a vast reservoir of distress and poverty here and beyond our bor- ders that I doubt whether, without very heavy expenditure, any ap- preciable effect would be seen.
This is a matter of considerable importance and I do not wish to
Oa appear to dismiss it off hand. the other hand, it is a problem which primarily
the concerns Urban Council by whom it has, I believe, been discussed at length on several occasions.
to the the on
I suggest therefore that those interested should, as a first step. communicate their views Chinese representatives Urban Council and should request them to take up the matter with that body.
POLICE DEFENDED
In this connection I should like to say a word, if that is necessary, in defence of the Police. It has been suggested in more than one quarter that Police officers often arrest hawkers simply in order to improve their records and not for the sake of the enforcement of lar and order.
I wish that were really the case because then the remedy would be obvious. I have often seen and pit ed
wretched some
creature caught with
a bundle of dried sticks, and yet one knows that it would not need many months' re- laxation of effort for the Island to be stripped as bare of vegetation
as it is said to have been a hundred years ago.
Similarly, multiply the shoe- shiners by fifty and who could walk on the pavement? I am far from satisfied that this effort is un-
necessary.
CASE BOOKS
What They Mean To
Police Officers
I have to admit that there are such things as case books, but not that they are worthy of the impor- tance they sometimes assume in Court proceedings. The official re- corde of a police officer's service contain no mention of the number of convictions which he has obtained. The case book is a sub- sidiary record not without its uses when the value to the community of a police officer's services is under consideration. It contains details of important cases in red, and of unimportant cases in black ink.
It hardly seems necessary to point out that black entries are regarded as being of little or no importance. Red entries are im- portant, and rightly so.
With regard to the cost of the Police Force it should I think be made clear that the estimate for 1935 was just under three million dollars (at 1/4). Two and a half million dollars was the expenditure in that year when exchange rose as high as 2/6; when the 1936 es- timates were in preparation the rate was taken as 1/8. So that any increase In the cost of the Department is entirely due to the higher cost of sterling.
HOSPITAL DIETS
The Director of Medical Services informs me that the diet in the third Class Ward of the Tsan Yuk Hospital is the same as; that in other Government Hospitals, but that Chinese patients in Maternity Hospitals often prefer salted eggs and cabbage which are given them on request.
There are five air rings and eighteen bed rests on the Hospital Inventory. More could be supplied I thought necessary but serious operations are now seldom per-
formed at this Hospital which has since July of this year been used for maternity cases only.
With regard to the Cholera Epidemic I think it is only fair to the Medical Department to say that the sense of dissatisfaction. which is I am afraid always ex- pressed more readily than its op- posite, was not shared by the re-
presentatives of the League of Nations Health Bureau whom I had
the privilege of meeting when they they were in the Colony.
CHOLERA EPIDEMIC Medical Department and
Undiscovered Stock of Serum
I do not see how the Medical Department can be blamed for Ignorance of the existence in the Colony of a quantity of serum that no one but the importer knew any- thing about until August 16.
Two cases of Cholera were actu- aly detected among passengers ar riving by train. If they had not been discovered they might easily have infected a number of others. While on this subject I should 'ke to refer briefly to one or two points raised by the Honourable Dr. Li Shu-fan.
MODERN METHODS
I am informed by the Director of Medical Services that the
treat- ment of Cholera patients is accord- ing to modern methods.
The high death rate he attri- butes to the poor physical condi- tion and under-nourishment of most of the sufferers, and perhaps also to the fact that Cholera is not endemic in Hong Kong and the people are therefore more suscepti- ble to the disease than they would be if they had had the chance of acquiring partial immunity.
As natters stand there is little to be gained by storing up vast quantities of vaccine which will only last
two years, so long as supplies can be obtained without difficulty from elsewhere.
STREET LIGHTING
The question of street lighting to meet local conditions has been under discussion for some time be- tween the Public Works Depart- ment and the local supply' Com- panies. Certain information has not just been received from Eng- land and the conclusions are now being considered. Extra money is being spent next year on the main- tenance of Kowloon roads,
REVENUE OFFICERS' CASE Executive Action Is Being Taken
Against Those Concerned
I find it a little difficult to com- ment on the case of certain re- vende oficers partly because it is still in a sense sub judice, partly because I prefer to believe that I have misunderstood the meaning of the words used by the speaker in this instance.
Following the recent Court pro- ceedings (which, I belleve. es- tablished that the transaction was not one of bribery) executive ac- tion is being taken against all the officers concerned.
Wreckage of a train which was bombed at Sungkiang by Japanese planes as, packed with refugees from Shanghai, it stood waiting in the station for a clear track.
CHAI WAN CEMETERY It is quite usual in such cases to await the result of Court pro- ceedings before taking other action.
There has been a protest against the decision to establish a cemetery at Chai Wan. I am assured by the Chairman of the Urban Coun- cll that he considered every other possible site and that a proposal to put this cemetery on the mainland was strongly opposed.
PERSONAL EMOLUMENTS Extra Staff For The Queen
Mary Hospital.
With regard to Personal Emolu- ments, Medical Department, on a rough calculation I make the addi- tion in respect of extra staff for the Queen Mary Hospital about $20,000, plus about another $7,000 In respect of posts added in 1937 for which full provision was not made during that year. I hope that
The ba- lance say $40,000 is accounted for by acting pay, increments and pro- motions.
the Botanical Department will be able to mitigate the effect by planting trees and that our local George Washingtons will keep their hands off them.p
NEW TERRITORIES
I am, I admit, not so pessimistic about the position of the New Ter- ritory farmer as is the Honourable Dr. Li nor so optimistic as he ap- pears to be regarding the produc- tivity of New Territory soil. But these and kindred matters might now I think await the arrival of the new Superintendent of the Botanical and Forestry Depart- ment.
The increase in the cost of the Wireless Sub-department has no- thing to do with the transfer to the Post Office. It is apart from additions at Kal Tak due to three causes--The reintroduction of a post of Wireless Engineer to carry on that side of the work of Mr. L. H. King: the promotion of two officers to the post of Assistant Wireless Engineer: and some in- crease due to normal expansion.
"HANGERS-ON"
The dimculty felt by one Hon- ourable Member regarding the Senior Clerical Officers in the
Sanitary Department is due to cer- tain complications of the present system whereby the salaries of transferable officers must be pro- vided in the Estimates of the De- partment to
which they
belong when those Estimates are prepared. This means that most Depart- ments have to provide for a cer- tain number of "hangers on"--- officers on leave and so on. The Government is considering the ad- visability of providing in 1939 for such unattached officers under a separate sub-head,-perhaps of the Colonial Secretary's Office in order to avoid obscurities of this sort.
CITY DEVELOPMENT
The future of St. John's Place and Battery Path depends upon the decision to be reached regarding the City Development Scheme
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