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11. QUARANTINE AND PORT HEALTH SERVICES.
A note of the normal services is to be found in the Wellington Review, page 27 et seq. An up-to-date review of the situation is also disclosed in the Quarterly Review (ending November) which I understand Col. Fehily has forwarded to the Colonial office.
At the Kai Tak airfield the R.A.". Authorities inspect vaccination and other certificates and get the usual statement from the Commander of the aircraft but there is no reception hut nor is there any accommodation in which to detain cases for observation, nor any staff. When the new civil airport at Ping Shan is opened it is expected that something like thirty aircraft will land daily.
Port Health work in connection with shipping is nominally being carried out by the Royal Navy. There are, of course, at the moment not a great many non-Navy ships arriving, apart from coastal traffic. There is no medical inspection of emigrants or immigrants and there can be no fumigation of ships because there is no apparatus for this. It has been put out of action, and so have the disinfectors on the hulk "Aldecoe" since the latter has been sunk. Vaccination from house to house has been planned but the D.D.N.S. has at present no vaccine lymph.
After what has been said earlier there is no need 14 com. to stress further the serious position that obtains. If Col. Tehily had the Health Officers and the apparatus, he could at least improvise some kind of Fort Health Service organization but he has neither. He cannot leave the responsibility to Chinese Medical officers and he has no working disinfecting plant. Apparently machinery and equipment have been held up as well as personnel and drugs.
There should be reception centres in Hong Kong, wherever these are needed. In addition, there should be a quarantine camp, preferably one that could be used for all requirements, conforming to standards laid down in the International Sanitary Conventions. In addition, there must be provision, when diseases are occurring, for examining persons crossing the land frontiers from China by rail or road. I have visited Macao and have now a better idea of the possi- tilities of importing disease from that area. Yacao is mainly a danger from the point of view of transients from Canton. I had intended also visiting Canton but for various reasons this was impracticable. I have, however, had ample opportunity of discussing the situation here with those who have an intimate knowledge of the problems, including the Director of Medical Services of Canton who was in Hong Kong during my visit.
Hong Kong is a territory where, in spite of the most efficient Public Health service, disease will slip in and the degree of insurance, although only relative, must depend not only on the efficiency of the service but also on the measures taken locally to protect a vulnerable population. The other factors are a competent and adequate
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