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(d) WATER SUPPLY
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Water mains suffered considerably during hostilities and pumping plants dependent upon electro-motive power ceased to function for several weeks after the fall of Hong Kong and were again affected in 1944 and 1945 by the shortage of fuel. The Japanese failed to chlorinate the water and even to carry out periodical cleansing of the filter beds, with regrettable results to the quality of water in the distribution system.
With the arrival of the British Forces at the end of August, 1945, immediate steps were made to rectify this dangerous state of affairs and frequent bacteriological examinations of water from service pipes were made by the officers in charge of the Medical Department Bacteriological Institutes in Hong Kong and Kowloon,
In their anxiety to secure metals for guns, ammunition, shipping, etc., the Japanese tore down the work which had been started on the new filter beds at Stubbs Road in Hong Kong Island and exported the steel reinforcement to Japan. It is to be hoped that it will be found practicable to recommence, with the minimum of delay, this construction work, and work on the covered service reservoir at Albany road.
(e) MORTUARIES
The Japanese did not proceed with the plans for the combined public mortuary and crematorium on the site selected adjoining the Yaumati Harbour of Refuge. Both the Victoria and Kowloon Public Mortuaries functioned during the Japanese occupation, but only a relatively small proportion of the bodies of persons dying without having been seen in life time by qualified medical practitioners were subjected to postmortem examination.
(f) CEMETERIES
The Japanese stopped work on the Wo Hop Shek Cemetery scheme which was on the verge of reaching maturity when hostilities commenced. Instead, burials were permitted at Sai Wan, Pokfulam, Aberdeen, Aplichau and Stanley on Hong Kong Island and at Homuntin, Argyle Street and south of the Kowloon City-Clear Water Bay Road on the Kowloon Peninsula.
After the internment of the Health Inspector i/c Cemeteries in 1943, the lack of supervision was followed by nuisances arising from shallow burials and from grave robbers who disinterred corpses for the purpose of utilising coffin wood for fuel and of removing clothing, gold teeth, etc. Pending the completion of the Wo Hop Shek scheme, Homuntin Cemetery was declared closed in October, 1943, and burials were permitted at No. 7 Cemetery near Kowloon City and at Sai Wan, Pokfulam, Aberdeen and Stanley. Efforts were made to bury the bodies of all service personnel who were killed in action in the Happy Valley Cemetery. Those dying of wounds, etc., subsequent to December, 1941, were interred at Pokfulam, Bowen Road (adjoining the Military Hospital) and at Argyle Street. Bodies of several who had died during the fighting in remote parts of the Colony, and Chinese looters and grasscutters who were killed in considerable numbers by the Japanese troops and Gendarmerie, were still being collected and buried three months after the December surrender.
(g) MARKETS AND SLAUGHTER HOUSES
The Department ceased to have any control over markets early in 1942 until the end of August, 1945, when they were again taken under supervision. Shortly after the arrival of the British Forces in Hong Kong, the wholesale Market at Kennedy Town, Hong Kong Island, was converted into a fish
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market by the Director of Fisheries in connection with his admirable co- operative scheme for catching and marketing fresh fish. Slaughter houses at Kennedy Town and Hong Kong continued under the supervision of European Health Inspectors (divorced from the Department) until August 1944, when the two officers concerned were interned in Kowloon. At the end of August, 1945, both slaughter houses were again placed under the control of the Department. Owing to the blockade very few animals were slaughtered during the Japanese occupation, and the price of buffalo and pork rose, at one time, to M.Y. 150 per catty as compared with less than a dollar in 1941 and two to three dollars after the Japanese surrender.
The construction of an up-to-date slaughter house for which plans were prepared in 1941 remains one of the urgent needs of the Colony.
(h) RESTAURANTS, EATING HOUSES, FOOD SHOPS AND FOOD FACTORIES
Apart from the fact that the Japanese insisted upon closing for varying periods hotels, restaurants, etc., where an individual was suspected to have been infected with, for example, typhoid, no supervision or licensing of such places was carried out under Japanese rule. It is anticipated that licensing, after inspection and approval, of such places, will be reinstituted at the beginning of January, 1946.
Owing to the acute shortage of foodstuffs in Hong Kong at the time of the Japanese collapse, it was decided not to attempt to confine the sale of fresh vegetables, fruits, etc., in markets or hawkers' standings for the time being. In view of the road blocks and unhygienic conditions resulting from the sale of such foodstuffs along the public highways, it will be necessary to control hawkers and to enforce the use of special hawkers' standings as soon as regular supplies of vegetables are received in the Colony.
(a) MALARIAL BRANCH
G. Investigative Division
Six weeks elapsed after the surrender of Hong Kong in 1941 before the Japanese could be persuaded to allow anti-malarial work to be carried out in Hong Kong. Even then the Malariologist and such of his staff as could be induced to remain in Hong Kong were seriously handicapped owing to the fact that the Japanese made it very difficult for anti-malarial aid or the necessary tools to be secured.
Up to May, 1943, when the Malariologist was interned in Stanley Civilian Internment Camp at the same time as the skeleton cadre of Health Officers and Inspectors, an appreciable amount of anti-malarial work was carried out. Priority was given to the areas likely to affect the various internment camps and hospitals. The Malariologist took on anti-malarial work in Stanley Camp after his internment and it was largely due to his efforts and those of the Health staff in Stanley prior to his internment that the civilian internees were so free from serious outbreaks of malaria. Needless to say, anti-malarial activities in Stanley camp were severely handicapped by shortage of tools and oil. After May, 1943, although a small handful of the anti-malarial Inspectors remained at their posts, they were able to achieve very little because of the failure of the Japanese to supply oil, etc. However, immediately the Depart- ment was reorganised, the Malariologist was able to employ his staff very usefully especially in view of the particularly valuable co-operation from the British Naval, Military and Air Force Authorities. By August, 1945, malaria had become a serious menace and many areas on Hong Kong Island which had been rendered entirely free from anopheline breeding were discovered to have become hyperendemic. About 70 per cent. of all patients attending the public dispensaries at Aberdeen and Shaukiwan, for example, were found
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